Tuney and the Tots
by Neale
Summary: AU as usual. This one is around Petunia, Dudley, Harry and Mrs Figg escaping Dumbledore's machinations with the goblins' help six months after Harry was left on the Dursley's doorstep. The last chapter of my last story seemed to bomb, so I'm playing with another idea before I go back to it.
1. Beltane Escape

**Yet another AU story. This one will have Petunia, Dudley, Harry and Mrs Figg walking away from Dumbledore's machinations six months after Harry was left on the Dursleys' doorstep and they start a new life with the goblins' help. There wasn't enough time for the abuse to settle in and Vernon was the only one in the house who was aggressive to Harry.**

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

**1****st**** May 1982**

Petunia had been trying to stop hyperventilating and calm herself down enough to drive ever since she got the boys and their things out to the car, but it just wasn't working. She shrieked when someone knocked on the window, but it was Mrs Figg from around the corner, looking surprisingly serious, so she wound the window down.

"What happened dear?"

"It's Vernon, for some reason he suddenly started shouting about Harry being a Freak and took everything that came with Harry when he arrived out into the yard to burn it, saying that he was getting rid of any sign that the freak had been here and then he was going to get rid of the Freak. But the fire seemed to explode so he had to jump back to avoid being burnt and when he saw Harry laughing he just grabbed him and started hitting him so I… I…. I hit him with the heavy fry pan. I don't know how much damage I did to him, I really should have called for an ambulance but I just wanted to get Harry and Dudley away from him before he could hurt them any more."

Mrs Figg patted her on the shoulder, saying "Just wait here and I'll go check on him dear." before she headed into the house.

She was back in a jiffy. "He'll be fine dear, he's already trying to get up, but I think you had the right idea about getting the boys away from him because he is making threats about what he's going to do to the Freak when he gets his hands on him. Are you alright to drive?"

Petunia shook her head and wailed. "No…. I've been trying to calm myself down enough to drive but I'm still shaking too much."

Mrs Figg nodded. "Why don't you scoot over then so I can get you out of here before he manages to find his feet then?"

Petunia nodded and scrabbled over to the passenger seat so that Mrs Figg could hop in and get them out of there. While Petunia didn't see Vernon stagger groggily out the front door as they disappeared down the street, Mrs Figg did, and she vowed to make that bastard pay for trying to hurt Lily's boy.

She expected Dumbledore to come looking to find out what happened straight away, so she couldn't take them to her house. It didn't take her long to decide to drive them to a train station in another suburb to talk, that way if Petunia took her advice they could easily hop on the train and head straight into London from there. Once they were parked at the station, Petunia dug through the glove compartment until she found the hip flask she knew that Vernon would have in there and took a few quick swallows of the expensive scotch in the flask. She didn't much like it but it settled her enough to stop and think and she offered the flask to Mrs Figg, who accepted it with a smile and took a smaller sip before handing it back.

* * *

"So, now that you and the boys are out of the house Missus Dursley, what are your plans?"

"Call me Petunia, please Missus Figg, and I can't thank you enough for helping us get away from there, but I really hadn't thought of anything past getting the boys away from Vernon…. Knowing Vernon he'll report the car as stolen as soon as he thinks of it and he'll probably freeze our accounts as well, so I need to get to the bank and get the money out before he has a chance to do that because I've got nothing but the housekeeping money in my purse…."

She started to cry and Mrs Figg patted her on the shoulder. "Don't cry dear, we'll get you through this, and call me Bella..." she smiled "My name is Arabella but that's actually longer to say than Missus Figg. Your sister Lily called me Aunt Bella when we got to know one another after she left Hogwarts…. We talked quite a bit because I was the only one in the group who lived in the non magical world and trying to talk to the ones who understood nothing but the magical world drove her around the bend…. She was never one to suffer fools gladly…."

"Anyway, if you're really worried about your fat pig of a husband finding you and the boys and doing something to you, I know people who can help you."

Petunia looked hopeful at that. "Really? Who?"

"Do you remember going to Diagon Alley with Lily to get her school things before she started at Hogwarts?"

Petunia nodded hesitantly, wondering where this was going.

"And do you remember going to the bank with all those angry looking little men in it?"

She nodded again.

"_That's_ who, the goblins. Lily told me that you and your husband thought that the stories you heard about how rich James' family was at your wedding was just James and Sirius trying to wind your husband up, but they weren't. James' family is one of the richest and most powerful families in the magical world, and they're extremely important to the goblins, so all we need to do to get you the help you need is to get Harry into Gringotts and they'll handle everything from there. If I thought that your husband was going to try and harm Harry I would have done something before this but I thought that he was just a blow hard, and I didn't know how closely Dumbledore was monitoring Harry so I didn't want to take the risk of him catching us and wiping out our memories."

"I do know that Dumbledore will go to great lengths to stop anyone interfering with his plans because Sirius Black, who's Harry's magically sworn Godfather so he _couldn't_ do anything to harm Harry, was thrown into Azkaban for supposedly betraying James and Lily to Voldemort so they could be killed, then killing another one of their friends and a dozen normal people without blinking an eye. Sirius loved James like a brother and loves his Godson, he'd _never_ betray them and I don't believe he would have killed all those other people without good reason either so he had to be set up and Dumbledore would have had to sign off on it. Unbeknownst to Dumbledore though, I _also_ know thanks to Lily that he blocked my magic, memory and intellect to make me supposedly break down and fail out of Hogwarts so I'd be discarded into the non magical world as an idiot Squib by my family because he wanted to damage their reputation and position in Magical Britain, that man truly is totally ruthless."

She looked Petunia in the eye. "So, are we going to see the goblins and get you some help?"

Petunia drew a breath and nodded resolutely.

"Good! Right, if you think your husband will be reporting his car as stolen we're best off leaving it here and heading into London by train..." She held up a hand to cut off Petunia's protest. "I know that you have all your and the boys' things in the car, but as I said, I'm a witch like Lily, if nowhere near as smart or powerful as she was. I can shrink all your bags so they fit into our purses and we can each carry one of the boys, so we'll just look like a young mother and her aunt taking the boys into the city, will that work for you?"

That got a relieved smile from Petunia. "Yes thank you, that will do nicely, _Aunt_ Bella."

* * *

An hour later, they were standing outside the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road in London and Arabella discovered something quite interesting, both Petunia and Dudley could see the Leaky Cauldron as well as she and Harry could, so they _weren't_ Muggles. A quick look inside confirmed that there wasn't anyone she recognised in the Cauldron, so she hustled Petunia through to Diagon Alley and straight up to Gringotts as quick as she could.

Getting close enough to whisper to the teller that she needed to talk to the Potter Account Manager because she had Harry Potter with her and he needed sanctuary almost got her skewered, but a quick finger prick confirmed that the boy was indeed Harry Potter, so the two women and two toddlers were hustled out the back to a part of Gringotts that humans rarely visited.

Born Arabella Minette Rosier into an old Pure-Blood family and raised in the Noble House high society of Magical Britain up to the age of thirteen, Arabella was well educated in the who's who of the magical world, so she almost fainted when the goblin whose office they were delivered to introduced himself as Over Chieftain Gringott the Eighth, Director of the Gringotts Bank and Leader of the Goblin Nations. When she was able to speak, she hesitantly asked whether they'd perhaps been brought to the wrong office, because they were supposed to have been taken to see the Potter Account Manager.

Gringott looked at her for about a minute then barked a laugh, saying. "You _have_ been brought to the Potter Account Manager Madam Rosier, has the House of Rosier fallen so far that they no longer remember the history of Magical Britain?"

Arabella growled at him. "It's Missus Figg Over Chieftain Gringott! I stopped being Arabella Rosier in Nineteen Forty when Albus Dumbledore bound my Magic, Memories and Intellect to make it look like I had a total breakdown to embarrass my family and they threw me out as an idiot Squib!"

She froze, suddenly realising that she was snapping at what was reportedly the most powerful goblin in the world, but he nodded calmly. "I know this Missus Figg, but I doubt that Missus Dursley knows the story. Would you be willing to explain to her what happened to you so that she has a better idea of the type of people we're up against?"

Arabella hesitated, and then nodded, turning to Petunia. "As I said Petunia, I was never a patch on the witch your sister Lily was but I was doing fairly well in my Third Year at Hogwarts when Albus Dumbledore decided to make it look like I was some sort of defective who had a total breakdown which left me an idiot Squib to publicly embarrass my family... Because the Pure Blood Houses' core tenet is that they were better than everyone else in every way and image is everything to them. When my family threw me out, the uncle who took me away was supposed to kill me and get rid of my body to cover up the shame to the family, but instead he got people he did business with in the Muggle world to place me with a good family because I'd been a favourite of his since I was a little girl. I got married at the end of the Second World War and over the next ten years or so I had and lost several children but I had a good life with my Albert up until I was widowed when Death Eaters, the ones who follow Voldemort, killed him for fun five years ago."

"I'd recovered enough of my magic, memories and intellect without managing to work out that I'd been interfered with by then for Dumbledore to decide that I could be of use to him so he recruited me for his Order of the Phoenix. Lily, her husband James and several of their friends joined the order in Seventy Nine after they'd finished at Hogwarts, and as I said Lily and I hit it off because she could talk to me about things in our world without putting up with the others' condescending attitudes and ignorance."

"When Lily got to know me, she thought that there was something…. Off... about me and she didn't trust Dumbledore, so she quietly arranged to bring me here and get me checked out by the goblins' healers. I think she was even angrier than I was when they found all the bindings on me. The healers removed the bindings and Lily worked with me until I could act well enough to cover up the fact that the bindings had been removed. Luckily Dumbledore would never bother wasting his time looking into the mind of the dotty old Squib that he used to keep an eye on things in the Muggle world for him because my Occlumency shields would never have been good enough to keep him out."

"I didn't get to see much of Lily or Harry over the last year before Lily and James were killed by Voldemort because James had bought into Dumbledore's shite about needing to maintain secrecy about where they were, and I wasn't important enough to be _told_ that Lily and James had been killed, I had to find that out from the Daily Prophet. A few weeks after they were killed Dumbledore turned up at my house without warning and told me that he needed me to keep an eye on Harry for him, so he'd talked a couple who were selling their house just around the corner from Privet Drive in Wisteria Walk into selling it to me cheaply.… Which means that he used magic on them so they had no choice in the matter…. Then he just dumped a bag full of cash on the table, said that I had a meeting with them the next day at the house to close the deal and left without asking me whether I was okay with moving at the drop of a hat like that or whether I needed any help to do it, because everyone was expected to obey him without question and of course all the _minor_ details that needed to be worked out to buy a house were beneath him. I didn't argue with him because I wanted to watch over Harry for Lily, and I knew that she didn't like or trust your husband at all. I was waiting for the chance to get Harry, or you and Harry, in here to get the goblins to protect him, but it came up a lot quicker than I expected, because I felt Harry's outburst of wild magic from my house when it apparently decided to make the fire where his things were being burnt into a proper Beltane bonfire and headed straight over."

* * *

While Petunia was trying to get her head around the callous nature of the ones who ran this world she was being dragged into if she went along with it, Gringott brought up something else.

"By the way Missus Figg, in case you didn't know, you still have your personal vault here as Arabella Rosier. I don't know why it was never closed off, perhaps your uncle was supposed to do that but he was holding off in hope that you would recover your magic and didn't get around to closing it before he was killed in Grindelwald's War…. But it's still there and your annual clothing allowance of Six Hundred Galleons has continued to be deposited on the First of August each year so with what was left in it in Nineteen Forty, you have over Thirty Thousand Galleons in there now. I dare say that might come in handy if you are need to leave your current residence."

Arabella nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, it would, and for that matter the house in Wisteria Walk is in my name too. We haven't worked out any details with Petunia as yet but as I said, I _do_ want to be there to help watch over young Harry whether he remains with Petunia or not. I've got a bit of money put aside from selling my old house, but would there be any chance of Gringotts disconnecting the floo and selling the Wisteria Walk house for me quickly and quietly for market value so I will be able to afford to get myself another house close enough to Harry to look out for him Over Chieftain Gringott?"

She was a little surprised by the approving nod he gave her. "Yes Missus Figg, for your assistance in getting the Potter Heir safely away from a dangerous situation as you did and the care you've shown for him, Gringotts will be happy to do that for you. Would I be correct in thinking that you'd prefer not to go back to the house in case Albus Dumbledore or any of his people are waiting there to find out what happened to Lord Potter?"

Arabella nodded. "Yes Over Chieftain Gringott, if there was any way to have my kneazles, Mini and other belongings retrieved without me having to go back there myself, I would be most grateful."

Gringott nodded. "It will be done. We can also arrange for accommodation for yourself, Missus Dursley and the two boys here at Gringotts until more permanent arrangements can be made if that's acceptable?"

Arabella looked a question at Petunia who gave a quick nod, happy to let Arabella take the lead in these discussions because she obviously knew what she was doing. "That would be appreciated Over Chieftain Gringott."

He nodded again and turned to Petunia. "Missus Dursley, do you have any questions about what we've discussed here, or anything else?"

She looked at him, not quite knowing where to start, but then she realised that Mrs Figg had shown the way forward. "I don't really know what to ask yet Mister Gringott, but as I said to Missus Figg when we were talking in the car, I need to get money to look after myself and the boys out of our accounts before Vernon can freeze them, is that something you can help us with?"

"I'm not sure whether Missus Figg has mentioned this Missus Dursley, but the House of Potter is extremely wealthy, so money to look after you, your son and Lord Potter won't be a problem. That being said, I can quite understand you not wanting your husband to get what you see as _your_ money, and we can help you recover that. Where are your accounts held?"

"They're all with Barclays..."

She broke off when the goblin gave a frighteningly feral smile, but she understood when he spoke.

"We certainly won't have any problem recovering your money then Missus Dursley, you see Barclays Bank was created and is managed by Gringotts for our interfaces with and investments in the non magical world and it's essentially entirely owned by us, in fact your nephew as the only remaining member of the Potter family owns a majority holding in Barclays. Just give us details of how much you want out of what accounts you and your husband have in Barclays and we'll transfer it for you….. I do not know what your plans are at this point Missus Dursley, but might I suggest that we create a new account for you in the name of Petunia Evans and transfer the money into that account?"

She gave him a musing look. "Actually, if you can do that, could you make the account in the name of Morrissey please? Vernon doesn't know this but Morrissey was my mother's maiden name…. You see while I haven't really made any decisions yet Vernon's bright enough to know that I'll probably be divorcing him and he knows my maiden name, so putting the money into an account in that name would be as obvious as using Petunia Dursley."

Gringott gave her another one of those frighteningly sharp toothed smiles as he nodded. "Good thinking Ms _Morrissey__,_ I can see that your sister wasn't the only intelligent daughter in your family, and if you do choose to go ahead with a divorce, we have solicitors who can get it put through in quite a lot less time than it would normally take."

Petunia nodded distractedly. "I get the impression that you know quite a bit about my family Mister Gringott, so I presume that you know that Lily and I were actually half sisters, my mother died in childbirth and Lily's mother was my nanny…. She was the only Mum I ever knew because she was looking after me from when I was a month old. After they died together in that car crash last year Vernon tried to get me to claim the whole estate because their house had been a present from my mother's parents and he made Rose out to be some sort of dirty little gold digger who came in and deliberately seduced my father as a grieving widower, and to my shame in my jealousy over all the advantages I saw Lily having, I went along with him. I knew that it wasn't true, because Daddy sat me down and told me the whole truth after I said some hateful things to Rose when I was a teenager. He told me how she'd comforted him when he was grieving over my mum, but kept him at arm's length until after a mourning period of a year was over, I was nearly eighteen months old before she allowed their relationship to become physical, they got married when Rose found out she was pregnant and Lily was born twenty seven months after me. Our contesting the will kept everything tied up until after Lily and James died so it's only just been finalised and most of the money from the estate is still sitting in our Barclays accounts. I can't go back to Vernon because I can't trust him around Harry, so I want to use the money that came from our parents to buy a house for Harry, Dudley and me to live in. Vernon Dursley has no right to any of our family's money, it should only be used for our family…."

Arabella knew that the goblins were famous for not having _any_ patience for wasting time, so she couldn't believe that Gringott, the Leader of the Goblin Nations, was just sitting there letting Petunia waffle on like this. She'd been trying to catch Petunia's eye to shut her up before he got angry with her but she hadn't looked up while she was talking.

The goblin in question caught her attention once Petunia had finished. "Thank you for explaining that Missus Dursley. I will ensure that the money is transferred to the Morrissey account as soon as you give me the details…. Missus Figg, I could see you getting worried about how I would react to the long winded story that Missus Dursley was telling us. If I am reading the intentions of you two ladies correctly, we will all be having quite a bit to do with each other while young Harry is growing up, so I will try to explain my…. _Ungoblinlike_ behaviour…. to you. The fact is ladies that in the eyes of the Goblin Nations, young Harry is by far the most important human alive…."

He paused to let that idea register.

"When the Potter Magic accepts him as Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Potter, Harry will also be accepted as Patron of the Goblin Nations and have quite a bit of authority over matters in the Goblin Nations. Missus Dursley is understandably in a state of considerable turmoil, but she was explaining to us about where the money in the Dursley accounts came from and what she wants to use it for, _and_ that Harry is an important part of her family now, just as you previously explained that you wanted to get the house in Wisteria Walk sold so that you can get somewhere close enough to Harry to watch over him, so you're both telling me what I want to hear, that you want to protect and help him. From getting to know Duchess Potter over the time we had before she and the Duke were killed, I believe that with Arabella to provide the wizarding, Petunia and her son the non magical, the Goblin nation the goblin and the Potter elves the elf influences, young Harry will be ready to accept all elements of our world when he grows up..."

* * *

That reminded Arabella of something and she piped up. "Would it be possible to get Petunia and Dudley tested for magic and inheritance Over Chieftain Gringott?"

"For a start, if it is alright with you ladies, perhaps we could use our given names when it's just us here in private from now on? As I said, I hope that we can regard ourselves as a family raising these two little men together so a little informality is appropriate… but while that is indeed possible…. Arabella?"

Arabella nodded. "Or Bella Gringott, I came to like Lily calling me that."

He nodded. "While that is indeed possible _Bella_, why would you ask that?"

"Because I noticed that when we arrived on the Muggle side of the Leaky Cauldron, neither of them had any trouble seeing it, so they must be at least borderline magical."

He looked surprised. "Is that correct…. Petunia?"

She nodded as Arabella had then hesitated. "Actually, no, Tuney please. That was what Lily called me and I must admit that I miss hearing it sometimes…. From what you were saying Gringott I take it that you wouldn't have any trouble getting our names officially changed?"

Gringott shook his head with a smile but remained silent, wanting to see where she was going with this.

"Then I would like my new name to be Tunisia Rose Morrissey. You see it wouldn't be difficult to track us down in the normal world by searching for the names Petunia, Dudley and Harry…. But fanciful names became popular in the Sixties so people would accept Tunisia and the boys aren't even two yet, so Dudley shouldn't have too much trouble getting used to being called Daniel… Danny, he can be Daniel Robert Morrissey and while I expect that Harry will need to keep his name in your world?"

Gringott nodded.

"He can be _officially_ registered with his full name of Henry James Potter Peverell but be known as Henry Peverell, Harry, in our world. That should make us much harder to find…."

Gringott smiled. "As I said _Tuney_, I'm glad to see that Lily was not the only intelligent Evans daughter, those are very good and workable ideas and I will get our people working on them straight away."

"Thank you Gringott, but what were you asking me?"

"When you arrived outside the Leaky Cauldron, could you see the pub?"

"Yes, clear as day…. Why would I have any trouble seeing it?"

"Because there are wards to prevent non magical people seeing it, and I can assure you that most parents of the so called Muggle Born students _can't_ see it….. Which makes me wonder whether Dumbledore bound your magic to prevent you going to Hogwarts for some reason…. Yes… We definitely need to have the proper tests done on the two of you…. And Harry too, given the way Dumbledore likes to block everyone's abilities to keep them under control there's no way he'd leave a child as powerful as Harry alone…. Yes, I think that's our next step, but if you have the account details and amounts you want transferred Tuney, I'll get the orders sent off to get that started, and if you give me the address for your house in Wisteria Walk Bella we'll get everything cleaned out of there, and cut off the floo and put a for sale sign out front as well, that should upset Dumbledore."

* * *

Tuney didn't think she'd ever become comfortable with seeing goblin smiles, they just looked so dangerous!

Half an hour later, Tuney was wishing to see those goblin smiles which only _implied_ mayhem because she found that an angry goblin was _much_ more frightening.

They'd found the expected blocks on her magic, along with a slightly less severe one on her intellect, a serious obliviation and a compulsion to avoid magic, all placed as she was coming up to eleven. With the blocks removed, she was shown to be potentially around Arabella's level, a clever witch of mediocre magical power. Apparently someone (they all believed Dumbledore) had decided around that time that if Muggle-Borns were as exceptional as Lily, they would be allowed to go to Hogwarts so they could be exploited, but if they were mediocre, their magic would be bound and their memories of magic wiped to keep them out of the magical world. Dudley looked to be a bit below her in intelligence and power, but he should be able to at least match most wizards in Magical Britain.

The inheritance tests showed that Petunia and Lily's father, Robert Evans, had been a high level squib, borderline wizard, from the senior line of the Ancient Wizard Family of Ifan, while Lily's mother Rose Jones had also been a high level squib, if not a witch, but she was from the senior line of the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Slytherin. She, and hence Lily and Harry, were the true heirs of Salazar Slytherin, _n__ot_ Voldemort as he claimed. Voldemort wasn't even from a cadet line under the traditional rules inherited from the non-magical nobility, because he was descended from one of Salazar's two younger _sister__s_.

It was Harry who had Gringott ranting and swearing in High Goblin though, because aside from the bindings that were so severe that he should have been in a vegetative state, not blasting out magic so strongly that it could be felt in the next street….. He'd had a compulsion placed on him to make Muggles react violently to him, even more so when he displayed magic…. And something else involving blood magic that had managed to change his magical signature enough to hide him from the Potter elves…. But the _worst_ news was the fact that the diagnostic scans showed that behind that ugly scar on his forehead that wouldn't heal was one of the worst abominations known to the Magical World, a soul anchor.

The ritual to remove the soul anchor took over an hour, and much of that had Harry crying and screaming in pain, but when it was done he settled down as soon as he felt the _wrongness_ of the soul anchor gone. Gringott ordered the soul anchor transferred into an enchanted object (which became a _dark_ object as soon as it was transferred), rather than destroyed out of hand, because he wanted to use it to determine whether this was the _only_ soul anchor that Voldemort had created.

Gringott wasn't at all happy when it was discovered that there was another soul anchor inside Gringotts, in fact his fury at hearing that was enough to send hardened warriors scurrying out of his way. The second anchor had been discovered in the Lestrange family vault, but it turned out to be Helga Hufflepuff's enchanted cup so once the soul anchor had been transferred into another enchanted object, the cleansed cup was placed in the Hufflepuff vault where it rightfully belonged.

* * *

Vernon was having a very bad day, first Petunia tried to kill him with a frying pan and disappeared with his car, their son and the Freak. Then when the police finally bothered to turn up, instead of charging Petunia with attempted murder, kidnapping and auto theft as he demanded, they'd questioned _him_.

Their first questions were all around why he'd been burning baby blankets in the back yard. When he said that they'd belonged to his wife's orphan nephew who she took away, along with his son, they wanted to see the paperwork to show that this nephew had been legally placed with them, because there was no record of any Harry Potter being born, let alone being legally placed with the Dursleys. Telling them that they'd found him on the doorstep when they got up on the 2nd November last year just had them demanding to know why they hadn't called the police and child services as any decent people would have if that had actually happened.

Then they wanted to know just what he'd done to frighten his wife enough to make her attack him in self defense and then take her son and their clothes and flee from the house in a panic (they didn't mention to him that the neighbours had reported seeing Mrs Dursley talking to an older lady who apparently lived somewhere nearby and that they'd driven off together). The fact that the Dursleys' car was found parked and locked at a station about 10 KM away refuted the charge that she'd stolen it, as she'd merely used the family's shared property to get her and her son away from what they were quickly coming to regard as an abusive husband. The search for Mrs Dursley was called off, because the officers were confident that she'd turn up as soon as she felt safe, to lay charges against her husband.

Vernon's day just got worse after he had to spend ten quid to get a taxi to the station to pick up his car, because when he went to the bank to freeze their accounts to stop her getting any money out of them, they'd been cleaned out! The bank was worse than the police, because they swore blind that there was no evidence that the money he claimed was stolen had ever been in their accounts. It had to be something to do with those freaks! This type of thing just didn't happen in the real world!

He had a brain wave then though, because he remembered that they had the paperwork for Petunia's parents' estate that _proved_ that over a hundred thousand pounds had been deposited into their accounts from the estate, so he raced home to get the paperwork, only to find that it had been cleaned out while he was gone, along with everything relating to Petunia and Dudley. The house had been reduced to a bachelor's home, a bachelor who didn't have any of the paperwork he'd need to satisfy the Inland Revenue's questions when tax time came around. Who _also_ didn't have the paperwork he needed to cover himself in some of the dirty deals he'd made with dodgy characters, not to mention all dodgy deals he'd done at Gunnings, he was beginning to realise that he was in trouble, a _lot_ of trouble.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore didn't realise that he was in trouble until the blood wards around number 4 Privet Drive suddenly disappeared a month or so after Beltane (not that he paid attention to the old Druid festivals). He tried to floo to Arabella Figg's house, but the floo had somehow been disconnected so he had to floo to the Leaky Cauldron in London and then apparate to Little Whinging from there (while he may be able to apparate to London, it would take too much out of him and he couldn't risk damaging his image as a powerful wizard).

Privet Drive looked normal enough, aside from the fact that detection charms confirmed that the blood wards were completely gone. He let himself in, but while the house was filthy and no-one was there, nothing looked out of place and there were no signs of a struggle as he'd expect if the Death Eaters had tracked Harry Potter down and kidnapped him.

When he left there he went to Arabella Figg's house to find out what was going on, but there was a sign out the front to say that it had been sold! Once again, he let himself in but the house had been emptied, weeks ago going by the layer of dust over everything. His investigations were interrupted by two police cars screaming up the road with sirens blaring and he heard people shouting out that the burglar must be an idiot because not only was he wearing some stupid garish wizard's costume, he was in Mrs Figg's house which had been cleaned out and sold weeks ago after she was run over by a car.

Hearing his robes called 'some stupid garish wizard's costume' infuriated Albus, but looking out the front windows he could see quite a crowd in the street, and it was getting bigger so he wouldn't be able to obliviate everyone. That made him decide that discretion would be the better part of valour, as he'd heard some Muggle-Born students saying, so he apparated back to Diagon Alley.

Albus decided that he may as well transfer the gold that would have been deposited into the Potter brat's personal vault on the first of June into his own vault while he was there and save himself making another trip, so he headed to Gringotts. He was gratified to see most people waiting to be served deferring to him so he only had to push past a few people to get to the teller, as was his right. He was rather less gratified when he handed over the key and told the creature to transfer ten thousand galleons from that vault to his personal vault but the creature just applied the key to something on the counter in front of him and said. "No."

"What do you mean, no? I demand that you transfer the gold as you were told to!"

"That is not possible wizard, because there is only fifty three galleons, thirty sickles and one hundred and seventy eight knuts in that vault!"

A few of the Muggle-Born and Raised witches and wizards who were listening to this with amusement looked at each other, wondering whether the thirty pieces of silver was a message.

"Stop lying to me goblin! The annual deposit of ten thousand galleons would have gone into that vault on the first of June!"

Okay, _that_ was a stupid thing to shout out in Gringotts! Everyone who'd been avidly listening in up until that point quickly backed away from Dumbledore as angry looking security goblins were now marching towards the counter where Dumbledore was shouting at the teller.

The biggest security goblin with the fanciest armour snarled at Dumbledore when he arrived.

"Wizard! You are hereby banned from Gringotts for making false accusations and insulting a citizen of the Goblin Nation of Britain, which you are currently standing in!"

"I'm not going anywhere until my gold is transferred!…."

Dumbledore quickly shut up when a spear tip suddenly pricked him under the chin. "You must be deaf wizard, because you have already been told that the contents of that vault is worth less than sixty galleons, so there are no thousands of galleons to be transferred, and _I_ have told you that you have been banned from Gringotts! Teller Sharpclaw, give him his vault key back… No! Wait! Who is the owner of the vault that key is for?"

"The key is for the personal vault of Harry Potter Warrior Snorri."

"Well this wizard is obviously not Harry Potter so he should not have the key to Harry Potter's vault. Send the key to the Potter Account Manager…."

Dumbledore wasn't about to lose that key so he shouted. "Stop! I have the right to hold that key as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian! Give it back to me!"

The spear tip drew blood this time as Warrior Snorri snarled. "Teller Sharpclaw. Do as I told you and send the key to the Potter Account Manager, and you, Albus Dumbledore, will leave Gringotts now while you are able to!"

Teller Sharpclaw gave a smile that was evil, even by goblin standards, as he held up the vault key and said "As you command Warrior Snorri." as the key vanished.

Snorri barked a command in Goblin at the other guards to get Dumbledore out of Gringotts before he gave in to the urge to take his head and Dumbledore decided that it would be foolish to argue with the spears that were poking him in the back, meekly heading out the door. His ego wouldn't let that insult go though so he rushed straight to the Ministry and was still ensconced in Minister Bagnold's office when a squad of DMLE Patrol Officers arrived at Gringotts to demand that Warrior Snorri be handed over for attacking and injuring the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.

* * *

The scene when they arrived wasn't what they were expecting, because Diagon Alley in front of Gringotts was filled with angry witches and wizards who had just been ejected from the bank. There were also ranks of goblin guards blocking the stairs going up to the closed doors of Gringotts and a cadre of obviously high ranking goblins waiting for them.

When the Officer in charge of the DMLE Patrol squad demanded that Snorri be turned over, the spokes goblin (Ragnok, Gringott's nephew and heir, but the DMLE Officer hadn't bothered asking who he was talking to) asked him whether he was aware of the contents of the Treaties currently in force between _Magical_ Britain and the Goblin Nation of Britain?

The Officer was an arrogant Pure-Blood, one of Arabella's cousins actually, and told him that he wasn't there to waste time talking to creatures and to bring out the goblin who had dared attack the Chief Warlock. The rest of his squad stepped back when most of the hundred or so goblins who were filled the steps in front of Gringotts burst into angry shouts, this was beginning to look like a _very_ bad idea.

"Go back to your masters and tell them that no member of the people will _ever_ be given to the wizards for doing their duty within the Goblin Nation. I would suggest that you get memories from the witches and wizards standing here who witnessed the event, because I can guarantee that they will tell a very different story to the lies that Albus Dumbledore told…. And there will be a penalty for this attack on the sovereignty of the Goblin Nation! _Gringotts of London is hereby closed for business for two days!_ _Any further attempts to interfere with the affairs of the Goblin Nation will result in longer closures!_"

The DMLE Patrol officers were too shocked at that statement to make any attempt to stop him as he turned and walked back into Gringotts, with the rest of the goblins falling into line behind him until the doors closed with a rather final 'thud' and all that was left in front of Gringotts was a crowd of confused and angry witches and wizards. The Patrol officers' reception when they returned to the Ministry wasn't much better, because they were met by a cowed Head of the Patrol Office and furious Head of the DMLE, who had only been told that a squad had been sent to Gringotts to arrest the goblin who attacked Albus Dumbledore _after_ the squad had left.

Most of the squad were sent back to the DMLE offices to await their punishment, though a few hoped to have 'dodged a bullet' as the muggles said because they had done as Ragnok suggested and quietly got memories from some of the witches and wizards who had been in the bank, along with memories of the scene outside Gringotts. They'd quietly handed the memory vials to Master Auror Moody, who they knew had the Director's ear, telling him what the goblin had said just before he announced that Gringotts was closed for business for two days as a penalty for attacking the sovereignty of the Goblin Nation, and that any further attempts at interference would result in longer closures. Moody had nodded angrily to them and stomped over to Director Bones, who looked even more furious after he whispered to her and handed the vials over.

* * *

By the time they reached the Minister's office the head of the Goblin Liaison Office was there waiting for them, and Moody growled that Dumbledore, Malfoy and Macmillan were in the Minister's office with her. They just barged straight past the Minister's Secretary and burst into the office, which infuriated Minister Bagnold, who started shouting.

"What's the meaning of this? I'll have your job for barging into my office like this Bones!"

Amelia Bones snorted at her. "I don't think so Minister, for a start, as we all saw last year, the full Wizengamot has to sign off on replacing the Director of the DMLE. More to the point though, _I'm_ not the one responsible for shutting down Magical Britain for two days! I presume that the Minister's pensieve is still here somewhere? We have some memories that we need to look at."

Bagnold was muttering angrily as she waved for someone to get the pensieve out but Dumbledore was looking worried, because whatever happened was bound to be blamed on him. No-one was shouting after watching the memory of what happened outside Gringotts, because their 'Oh Shit!' reaction was universal.

Even though she probably understood the treaty better than he did, Amelia made a point of asking the head of the Goblin Liaison office what Ragnok of Clan Gringott, Heir to Over Chieftain Gringott, Leader of the Goblin Nations, had been referring to when he asked the head of the DMLE Patrol squad whether he knew what the current treaties between their two nations said. He looked nervous as he summarised the matter as the fact that the Goblin Nation of Britain was a sovereign nation and no foreign nation, such as Magical Britain, had any right to force them to do anything on their sovereign soil, which Gringotts was. He got rather quiet when he added that any attempts by a foreign nation to force the issue on the Goblin Nation's soil would be accepted to be an act of war.

"So by sending a squad of DMLE Patrol Officers to Gringotts _without_ the authorisation of the Director of the DMLE to arrest a citizen of the goblin nation without any proof of a crime being committed, someone has effectively declared war against the Goblin Nation?"

It was only the silence in the room that allowed them to hear his "Yes."

"And what about calling one of the most senior members of the Goblin Nation a _creature_ and ordering him to hand over one of their citizens without any authorisation?"

"That is more a diplomatic matter, but they could well demand that the guilty party's immediate family to be handed over to meet goblin justice."

She sneered at the Patrol Officer. "Congratulations Rosier, you've not only shut down Magical Britain for two days, you've probably put your own family's heads on the chopping block, what's the bet the Head of the House of Rosier throws you out of the family before the day's out to try and limit how much you cost them? Get out and wait for me in my office, you're fired." She turned to the Head of the Patrol Office. "You too!"

She turned back to the Head of the Goblin Liaison Office. "Thank you for your assistance Mister Shafiq, we just needed you to interpret the issues we will be facing as a result of this ill advised exercise."

He didn't have to be asked twice to leave and squeaked his goodbyes as he headed out of the room.

* * *

Amelia turned back to the ones left in the room and Lucius Malfoy spoke up. "What's Moody still doing here? He has no place in discussions of this nature!"

"Please address Master Auror Moody either by his professional title or his noble title of Baron Moody, Lord Malfoy... And I must remind you that as Baron Moody, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Moody, his station is considerably above your's as Lord Malfoy, Head of the Noble Wizard House of Malfoy, both in house status, and the fact that it is Baroness Malfoy who holds the title that makes your house Noble, so it is expected for him to be given due respect for his station. As for your question, Master Auror Moody is investigating the criminal activities that led to the incident that has closed Gringotts of London for two days and his presence is therefore required here. By the same token, I must ask in what capacity _you_ here Lord Malfoy, and you Lord Macmillan? I was not aware that either of you currently held Ministry positions and these matters are quite sensitive."

Bagnold started blustering. "Now see here Bones, Lord Malfoy and Lord Macmillan are my trusted advisors and I will not have you questioning them in my office."

"But not _official_ advisors Minister Bagnold, and according to the regulations of the Ministry of Magic no one but official Ministry officials should be present when discussing matters of a sensitive nature. Never mind, I expect that Professor Dumbledore's permission for them to remain should suffice, seeing that the matters we now need to discuss relate to him."

"Me? How? What are you saying?"

"Come now Professor Dumbledore, everyone in this office is aware that the incident caused by a DMLE Patrol squad being sent to Gringotts without my authorisation… _And_ under the control of an idiot who managed to insult the Goblin Nation enough to make them close Gringotts for two days... Was a direct result of what you told Minister Bagnold after you were banned from Gringotts for making false charges against and insulting a citizen of the Goblin Nation in the course of their duties."

Dumbledore and Bagnold were staring at her in shock. "What? A concerned person contacted me to advise me of what happened in Gringotts because they were worried that it would cause problems. The fact that in the next fifteen minutes I was informed that Professor Dumbledore was here in your office Minister Bagnold, _and_ that some idiot had sent a squad of DMLE Patrol Officers to Gringotts _without_ my authorisation confirmed that the person who contacted me was right to be concerned! As I appear to be the only one concerned about non Ministry personnel's involvement in this, let's just observe the incident in question shall we?"

With that, Moody put one of the memories of the banking chamber into the pensieve and started the playback. When the memory was finished, Amelia looked at Dumbledore. "So you went into Gringotts, pushing past anyone in your way and demanded that Teller Sharpclaw transfer Ten Thousand Galleons from Harry Potter's Personal Vault, which you should _not_ have the key to, into _your_ personal vault. When Teller Sharpclaw informed you that the transfer could not be done because there was less than sixty galleons in the vault you _shouted_ for everyone in the banking chamber to hear that he was a liar because a deposit supposedly should have gone into that vault on the first of June. _Then_, when Warrior Snorri informed that you were banned from Gringotts for making false accusations against Teller Sharpclaw you were confrontational and refused to leave until the transfer of the gold that you had already been told didn't exist was done. That was probably why Warrior Snorri asked for confirmation of the identity of the owner of the vault. He was quite correct when he said that you are _not_ Harry Potter and ordered that the key be sent to the Potter Account Manager, but you _still_ demanded that they give you the key to Harry Potter's Personal Vault. I will remind you Professor Dumbledore that if you were _truly_ magically accepted as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian as you claim to be, you would be working with the Potter Account Manager at Gringotts to manage his affairs, you would _not _be forced to steal gold from his personal vault!"

"So after you were finally forced to leave Gringotts at spear point, you came here and _lied_ to Minister Bagnold, which resulted in the incident that will cause Magical Britain to basically be shut down for the next two days because the only gold we'll have to pay anything will be what we currently have in our money pouches. Any businesses that need to make critical deals over the next two days could well be ruined and that idiot waiting back at my office has probably killed his immediate family by insulting the Heir to the Leader of the Goblin Nations to his face. That's quite an achievement Professor Dumbledore, I didn't think it was possible for one wizard to create a disaster of this magnitude for Magical Britain out of spite!…."

"And by the way, in case you didn't notice it, there were exactly thirty sickles left in Harry Potter's Personal Vault. Get someone who understands the Muggle World to explain the significance of thirty pieces of silver to you. I expect you may find that that is the reason you are _not_ magically accepted as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian."

Of course Dumbledore tried to ignore most of what she'd said. "I was officially appointed as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian by the Wizengamot!"

"But magic has _not_ accepted you! There is someone else who magic accepts as Harry Potter's true Magical Guardian! What do the Potters' wills say about that? Oh that's right, we don't know because _you_ had the Wizengamot seal their wills without being read the day after the Potters died, the same day you hid Harry Potter away from everyone who promised the Potters to look after him!"

"Director Bones! I will not allow you to attack the Chief Warlock in my Office!"

"Very well Minister Bagnold, I will leave the matter in your hands. I have two Officers to fire and a notification to send out to my department to try and prevent this type of thing happening again. Might I suggest that you issue an advice via the Wizarding Wireless and possibly the Daily Prophet as soon as possible to warn people to be very careful with their spending for the next two days so that they do not end up in any more trouble than necessary? Personally I would suggest that you tell people the truth about what happened to prevent anyone attacking the goblins and causing even more trouble for Magical Britain, but of course that must be your decision Minister. Good Day Minister Bagnold."

With that, she walked out, leaving a furious Minister for Magic and three furious wizards.

Bagnold ignored the other three as she got a bottle of Firewhiskey and a tumbler out of the cupboard and poured herself and downed a glass. She refilled the glass and turned to Dumbledore.

"Who _is_ Potter's real Magical Guardian Albus?"

"I don't know, Black was first on the list but it can't be him because he's in Azkaban. It may be the Longbottoms, I don't know whether being vegetables in Saint Mungo's invalidates them or its gone to Augusta Longbottom in their place. If not them it could be any of the Lovegoods, the Tonks or Minerva McGonagall, possibly even Bones."

"You and your stupid pride have just about ruined us Dumbledore! Now I've got to find some way of convincing everyone that through no fault of our own _or_ the goblins', Magical Britain will have no money for the next two days. Bones is right about one thing though, we can't afford to have anyone blaming the goblins for this so if blame _does_ have to be assigned to anyone... you, Rosier or that other idiot will be getting thrown under the Knight Bus…." She gave him an evil smile. "For the Greater Good of course."

* * *

With that she told them all to get out so she could prepare her speech and Dumbledore flooed back to his office at Hogwarts. When he stepped out of the floo though, he couldn't believe it, because his day had gotten even worse!

All of the devices he had had that were keyed to the blood monitors on Harry Potter, and everyone else for that matter, had disappeared, but that wasn't all. He frantically checked all his hiding places but all the heirlooms that he'd _acquired_ from the Most Ancient and Ancient and the Noble Houses had disappeared, the Potter invisibility cloak and Pensieve (along with all the memories he had accumulated), the Sword of Gryffindor, everything! On top of that, his entire library of ancient and arcane tomes that he'd been removing from the Hogwarts and Most Ancient and Ancient House Libraries for the last seventy or eighty years was gone too.

But if that wasn't bad enough, his phoenix was gone! He'd used dark blood rituals to forcibly bind the bird to him fifty years ago to establish his image as the Leader of the Light, because the companion of a phoenix must be a warrior of the light. The fact that the damned bird was gone was proof that someone had been able to _see_ the dark bindings he'd placed on it, and more importantly, able to break enough of those bindings to get it to leave him.

He demanded that the portraits in his office tell him who took everything, but none of them could tell him anything because whoever it was had managed to either freeze them or lock them out of the office until after they were gone.

Like Bagnold, he pulled a bottle of Firewhiskey and a tumbler out of the cupboard, but he downed three glasses before he slowed down. If he'd known how this day was going to turn out he wouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning.


	2. Life, or Something Like It

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

As well as having the bindings and memory manipulations removed, Petunia, or rather Tunisia, was given a full physical rework by the healers to get her into the best health. At her request, purely to make it harder to find her and the boys of course, they also performed rituals to make a few permanent changes to her features and hair colour so she now looked years younger and a little closer to what Lily looked like. She thought she knew what Gringott and Aunt Bella were thinking when they looked at her so she snapped at them.

"Alright yes! I was always jealous that Lily was prettier than me, but people won't identify me as Petunia Dursley like this so it will help keep the boys safe. The Healers told me that these changes will be permanent and I will age a little slower now that my magic has been unlocked, so I can start a new life as Tunisia Morrisey without worrying about my old life."

Gringott chuckled as he shook his head. "Actually, I was only thinking that this look suits you better Tuney, it doesn't try to turn you into Lily Potter, it merely helps confirm your familial relation to Lily and Harry as you already have her keen mind and quick wit, and temper…. Another thing that you may want to consider is your son, he may well be safer if the healers made him look more like you than his father, as that will help prevent people thinking about connections with your soon to be ex husband."

Tuney nodded thoughtfully at that. "Is it safe to make changes at his age?"

"I believe so..." He looked around and called the healer who had performed the ritual to made the adjustments to Tuney over. It only took a few minutes to confirm that it would be perfectly safe, and in fact it would be better for him if the adjustments were made now because he would grow into his new look. The healers also pointed out that they had another medical ritual that could convert all that excess fat to energy, which would make him _much_ healthier. Tuney agreed for them to go ahead and it was all done by the time they left the Healers Hall, and _Daniel_ had slept through most of it without a care.

Arabella also got a full physical rework from the healers which put her in the best possible physical shape and dropped nearly twenty years off her apparent age so that she looked more like she should have if she'd been a witch all her life. After discussing it with Tuney, she had her surname changed to Morrisey to shore up their story about her being Tuney's aunt and the goblins inserted all the relevant records to show that she'd met and married her Muggle-Born husband after she recovered from her 'accident' and stayed with him in the Muggle world up until he was killed by Death Eaters at the end of the Wizarding War. After he died she moved in with her late husband's niece to help her get back on her feet after she took her son and orphan nephew and left her abusive husband.

* * *

They'd all gotten rather a shock the morning after Beltane, because one of Magical Britain's more unusual wizards, Xeno Lovegood, turned up with his brilliant wife Pandora and their infant daughter, and as soon as they were in their Account Manager's office behind privacy wards, Pandora said. "Xeno told me my Godson is here, I want to see him!"

Their Account Manager just stared at her for a few minutes and then asked. "Why would your godson be here Lady Lovegood? And who is he?"

The crackling in the air reminded him that while most of the wizarding world didn't know, Lady Lovegood was in fact a Veela, and goblins knew better than to upset an angry Veela unless it was absolutely necessary.

Pandora was certainly angry as she bit out the words. "As to why he is here, apparently whoever managed to get him away from wherever that bastard Dumbledore was hiding him under impregnable wards had enough sense to bring the next Patron of the Goblin Nations here where he would be protected from the Wizarding world. My Godson is Earl Henry James Potter Peverell, Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses! Now are you going to take me to my godson or do I need to go to Over Chieftain Gringott directly?"

It was an interesting experience to watch a goblin go white, but he shakily held up one finger to ask her to wait and quickly sent off a note. Five minutes later the door banged open and a severe looking Gringott walked in. The Lovegoods' Account Manager jumped when he barked a laugh.

"Well this confirms that your vision more useful than other wizarding seers Xeno Lovegood, the Potter Clan High Elves beat you by ten hours but they just popped straight through our wards as soon as the masking of young Harry's magical signature was removed while you had to wait for the doors to open. I presume that you want to see young Harry Pandora?"

Pandora stood and curtsied low to the Leader of the Goblin Nations. "Yes please Over Chieftain Gringott, as you know I have been worried about him ever since he disappeared and the old goat molester has refused to tell anyone where he is."

Gringott nodded. "Come, I will take you to him, you too Xeno, unless you do actually have business with your Account Manager?"

Xeno laughed. "No Over Chieftain Gringott. I apologise for the subterfuge Account Manager Dragonclaw, but my wife was most anxious to see her godson and this was the quickest and safest way for us to get in."

Dragonclaw was still trying to regain his composure so he quickly waved the apology away. "Not at all Lord Lovegood, I quite understand."

Gringott caught his eye before he escorted the Lovegoods out. "Not a word of this to _anyone_ Dragonclaw, is that understood?"

Dragonclaw was embarrassed to find that he was nodding as urgently as a house elf as he assured the Leader of the Goblin Nations. "Of course Over Chieftain Gringott! No one will hear anything from me!"

Gringott nodded and waved the Lovegoods out the door.

He took them deeper than humans generally are allowed to go in the complex under Gringotts but when they reached the apartments that had been set up for the family in the Clan Gringott area, there was a squeal of "_A__r__nie_ _Pan!_" and Harry literally flew across the room to crash into her.

_Flying_ was something new, but Pandora ignored that for now as she hugged her best friend's little boy to her and cried. When she'd managed to regain her composure she looked around at who else was in the room, and her eyes narrowed as she realised that this was Lily's sister because she had held Lily many times as she cried over how she and her husband had treated her. "Is your fat pig of a husband here too?"

Tuney had blanched at the look of loathing this woman sent her, but she firmed her shoulders and shook her head. "No. He's the reason we're here, Vernon attacked Harry so I bashed him over the head with a fry pan and left!"

That response seemed to flip a switch in this beautiful woman and she smiled. "Good for you! You may deserve to be Lily's sister after all."

Now that the potential mayhem had been averted, Gringott introduced Arabella as Lily's friend who had brought Tuney and the boys to The People.

Seeing how gracefully Pandora bowed to her with a toddler in her arms and expressed her thanks for her godson's rescue confirmed to Arabella who this was. Only a Veela could be that graceful and Lily had told her who Harry's godmother was. Arabella surprised Tuney when she gave Pandora a deep curtsy and responded formally that she did this for Harry and Lily, so she needed no thanks. Tuney had _heard_ that Arabella was raised in a old noble family but it hadn't registered until now just what that meant.

* * *

They spent a while filling each other in on their stories, and Pandora grew ever more furious about what Dumbledore had done. At one point Pandora asked Gringott whether The People had managed to break through the fidelius on the Potter cottage in Godric's Hollow yet but he shook his head, starting to say that without the secret no-one could get in while the secret keeper and caster of the charm were still alive, but he froze and looked at Harry.

"Harry?"

"Yes Unca Gringo?"

"Could you see the place where you lived with Mummy and Daddy?"

Harry nodded and Gringott smiled. "Efa!"

One of the High Elves who had appeared as soon the blood magic masking Harry's magical signature was removed arrived with a quiet 'pop'. "Yes Over Chieftain Gringott?"

"Harry can see the cottage in Godric's Hollow, I presume he heard the secret keeper telling someone the secret, but would the Potter elves be able to use him as your eyes to get into the cottage if you're holding him?"

Efa nodded thoughtfully. "I believe so, yes, and once we're in we will be able to come and go."

"Harry, can you go with Efa and show her the cottage where you were living please?"

Harry just put his arms up to Efa in answer and she picked him up, popping away straight away.

Gringott explained to Tuney and Arabella. "As Arabella knows, the cottage where the Potters were living is under a fidelius charm, which prevents anyone seeing or knowing where it is unless the designated secret keeper tells you directly, either verbally or by a written note. The only ones who knew the secret were James, Lily, Dumbledore, the secret keeper and perhaps one or two others in Dumbledore's order. Most of James and Lily's memories and several priceless heirlooms were in that cottage, and they should still be there unless Dumbledore has cleaned them out so we've been trying to get in there to gather everything up and put it in the Potter vaults for Harry but everything we've tried has failed. The Potter elves should be able to access it because it's a Potter property, but they weren't there when the spell was cast and they were never given the secret so they can't see it. If we're right, Efa will be able to see the cottage when she's holding Harry and once she gets in she'll be able to come and go fine."

Just after he finished, Efa popped back with Harry and nodded before Gringott could ask. "Yes, holding Harry let me see it and once we were inside we could call the other elves to us. I have set up the communications mirror Mistress Lily had in her drawer there as a portal so you should be able to step through into the cottage."

A look around the group showed that everyone wanted to go, so Gringott stepped up to the mirror set against the wall and said the activation code for Lily's mirror, stepping through once the image settled. Pandora stopped them before they moved too far from the mirror portal, when they looked a question at her she explained. "Lily used to love crime novels and Alice and I got into them as well so we used to spend ages pulling apart the methods they used in the stories, that was how Alice got into the Auror Investigations Office so quickly. Efa and Harry were in here earlier, but I'm hoping that I will be able to work out how many other people have been in here since that night. That might give us an idea of how much is likely to be missing."

Tuney spoke up then. "I'd say not that much, going by the fact that that's a wand laying over there isn't it?"

They looked at where she was pointing and it was indeed a wand laying on the floor, James' from what Pandora and Arabella remembered. They looked a question at Tuney and she gave an embarrassed smile. "The passion for crime novels actually started with our father and we picked it up from him."

Pandora snorted. "Well if you're going to pick up habits from your parents, they may as well be good ones. Hopefully you're right Tuney, I don't see them leaving James' wand laying there in the middle of the floor if they were cleaning the house out..."

Arabella cut her off. "There's one thing that _i__s_ missing though, giant footprints."

Everyone turned to look at her and she reminded the ones who'd read the Daily Prophet stories that Rubeus Hagrid had supposedly come into the cottage and taken Harry away from Sirius Black before Black left and started his rampage. She waved around the room. "I can see other footprints that were left that night, but where are Hagrid's? They should be easy to see because his feet are at least twice the size of anyone else's, but I can't see any."

Pandora started swearing. "While we're asking questions, how did he get here and how did he find the cottage? We've been trying to break the fidelius for six months because we don't have the secret keeper. Unless it was written down, and Dumbledore swore that it wasn't, he couldn't tell us the secret because he wasn't the secret keeper. That means that unless he was lying to us he _couldn't_ have given Hagrid the secret that night, and I can't see Hagrid being one of the few trusted with the secret when no more than Dumbledore, the Potters and a couple of others including the secret keeper were told it. But how did he get here? If he used any of the floos in Godric's Hollow that would have been part of the stories that were being told over and over again, but it wasn't. And for that matter, while I know that he made a wand out of that brolly he carries around with the core of his wand that got snapped, I don't believe that he's able to use it to apparate. I don't doubt that Hagrid believes the story he told everyone, but that doesn't make it true."

The others nodded angrily and Pandora turned to Efa, holding out one of a pair of communications mirrors. "Efa, can you go to Amelia Bones please? If she's alone, try and use this and get her to come here, I don't want to corrupt her crime scene."

Efa bobbed a quick curtsy and disappeared while Pandora expanded the other mirror enough to serve as a portal. About ten minutes later the mirror swirled and Amelia stepped through. She was starting to ask them what was going on when she saw Harry and all but leapt across the room to take him in her arms, babbling questions about where he'd been.

It took a bit of effort but Pandora managed to convince her that she could get the story about Harry later, there was something else that needed to be attended to first. She quickly explained that she'd wanted to have a look around and work out what had been disturbed before they started moving about the cottage, but Lily's sister had spotted James' wand sitting out there in the middle of the floor and they started to think that it hadn't been disturbed much, until Arabella Figg pointed out that there was no sign of Rubeus Hagrid's footprints in the house, even though all the stories had said that he took Harry off Sirius Black _in_ the house, which led to other questions about how he saw the cottage when the fidelius is still going strong and Albus Dumbledore wasn't the secret keeper and swore blind that the secret wasn't written down. _And_ how he got to Godric's Hollow, as no-one had boasted about him using their floo to get here and he couldn't apparate. Amelia quickly came to the same conclusion they had, that Hagrid had been implanted with the memory of what happened that night. It was almost certainly Dumbledore who took Harry, and he probably changed Sirius' memory too to cover his tracks.

Amelia got them to wait there while she went around the house getting memories of what every room looked like before they were disturbed and Efa walked her through exactly what she'd done when she first came into the cottage. Another interesting point was that while the story Dumbledore spread had the roof and walls of Harry's nursery being blown out in the attack, aside from a few things being knocked over the room and the rest of the cottage were intact, he had obviously felt that the truth was too boring for the legend he was trying to create. As soon as Amelia gave them the go ahead, the Potter elves stripped _everything_ out of the cottage while Gringott and the humans went back to Gringotts to fill Amelia in on what they knew so far.

* * *

What she was hearing was infuriating Amelia, all the more so because she knew that they couldn't do anything about it yet, but something kept distracting her, the sight of the three toddlers playing together on the floor, in the end she turned to Tuney and Gringott and all but begged for her niece Susan to be allowed to be here with the boys and whatever other children were here during the day. She explained what Pandora and Gringott already knew, that everyone except for Susan in her family had been killed by Death Eaters in the war and they had no other family left so she spent most of the time at home with their elf. Bobbsey was wonderful, but it just wasn't the same as spending time with other kids.

Everyone thought that was a wonderful idea, and Gringott had the warders create a room off Tuney, Arabella and the boys' apartments that previously identified elves could pop into with the children (they didn't mention the fact that Efa and Emyr had been powerful enough to blast through the wards that kept most elves out when they were determined to get to Harry), and Efa allocated one of the Potter elves to the Lovegoods so she could bring Luna in to play with Harry and the other kids. Pandora and Xeno were both professionals (the monthly paper that most people thought was all Xeno did was just his hobby, he was actually a quite well respected young Magizoologist who had apprenticed under Newt Scamander to get his Creatures Mastery and Pomona Sprout to get his Herbology Mastery, while Pandora was an Unspeakable with the Department of Mysteries with a few masteries as well) and they often couldn't devote as much time to their daughter as they'd like, so being with the other kids in the Gringotts Creche as Arabella named it would be good for her too.

Tuney, Arabella and the boys had settled into the apartments that were allocated to them under Gringotts while all the loose ends were being tidied up. Gringotts' solicitors (who were actually family to Harry though his grandmother who was born Dorea Black) managed to process Petunia Dursley's divorce from her husband Vernon Dursley in a couple of weeks, but they laid down a paper trail that looked as though it had been going on for months but Vernon had been dragging his feet and trying to talk Petunia out of it. They tied in the police reports from the day they'd disappeared to present the argument that Vernon had been becoming more and more unstable, delusional and violent until the day that he started carrying on and _hit_ their son (using the healers' physical examination of Harry for evidence), which was why she'd hit him with the fry pan, grabbed their son and ran out of the house.

With their case structured like that, they had no trouble getting it signed off by the magistrate, especially when they stated that Petunia was happy to waive alimony and child support to cut ties with him and leave him with the house, car and other things because he had paid for them as the sole bread winner. When the magistrate tried to say that he had to pay her _something_, Petunia's solicitors explained that their client had recently been the recipient of her parents' estate so she was financially independent, and she would prefer not to take anything from her ex-husband in case that gave him some way to locate her.

Of course, Arabella wasn't about to forget the promise she made to herself as she was driving away from Privet Drive, so the story made to cover her disappearance was that she'd been run over and killed in a hit and run incident soon after Petunia Dursley and her son disappeared. Given the fact that many people were speculating about her being the woman who drove off with Petunia and the goblins had set up his car to look like quite a bit of work had been done to the front (without any record of it being done at legitimate workshops of course, because it wasn't), it wasn't hard to make the police put two and two together and start questioning Vernon about why he'd had his car repaired and where he got it done. The only reason he wasn't charged with a hit and run fatality was the fact that while many people had _heard_ about her being run over and killed (including the goblin owned real estate agents who sold the house on Wisteria Walk and the solicitors), there was no actual record of her death other than the death certificate the solicitors had been given to start processing her estate.

By the time June came around, Vernon Dursley's life had gone to the dogs. Petunia had bashed him in the head with a fry pan, taken Dudley (and the Freak, but that was a bonus) and left and the police blamed _him_ for it! Then all the money from her parents' estate and what they got from the old freak for keeping the boy had just disappeared and the police started harassing him about some work he hadn't had done on his car because some dotty old biddy had supposedly been run over and killed. Petunia divorced him and somehow made it look like it had been dragging on for months, making out that he'd been deliberately delaying the process and using the police reports that made him out to be the guilty party the day she left. The bloody police had been asking questions at work and causing him trouble, and he got dragged over the coals for making a joke about running over a chinaman… That arse Featherby-Snipe acting like his shit didn't stink '_It is in extremely poor taste to be making jokes about running someone over when you are being investigated for that very thing Dursley!_' Bloody arse! Then the police started questioning him _again_ because some idiot broke into both his house and the biddy that got run over's wearing some stupid wizard costume… That was the only thing in all this that made any sense actually, he _knew_ that this had to be those freaks' doing!

* * *

While they were tidying up their old lives, Gringotts was searching for the best place for Tuney, Arabella and the boys to move into. Their original plans had to be adjusted because the Gringotts Creche had expanded rather quickly. First Amelia convinced Augusta Longbottom that it wasn't good for her grandson Neville to be cooped up in Longbottom Hall with no-one but her and the Longbottom elves all the time so Neville was added to the group. She had used the argument that they needed someone they could trust there in the Wizengamot whenever it sat to represent their interests and make sure that Dumbledore and the Death Eaters didn't slip anything through while they weren't looking to convince her. They also had another boy their age join them, Blaise Zabini, because his mother Seren was usually busy running their international business empire. They even had Harry's (and Neville's) Nine year old second or third cousin and Arabella's Great Niece Nymphadora (Dora) Tonks spending most of the time she wasn't at school with them because her parents were tied up at their solicitors' office a lot of the time. Dora was leary about spending time with the little kids until Auntie Bella started tutoring her on some of the magical subjects so that she'd get a head start for Hogwarts. The fact that Auntie Tuney was joining them for those lessons gave Dora a confidence boost.

Gringotts found the place they were looking for halfway through May (goblins didn't waste time), Chase Lodge, an abandoned Sixteenth Century hunting lodge and private forest reserve in the southern part of Crawley. It was on the edge of a major population centre but quite private, and it was sitting on top of a ley line to power the wards that Gringott insisted be added. It of course cost more than Tuney and Bella put together could afford (though not as much as they expected it would because apparently no-one else was interested in buying a forest reserve that couldn't be developed), but Gringott convinced them to invest their money and let the Potter estate buy it so that they could legally add the wards etc that he considered necessary. So in the non-magical world Chase Lodge officially belonged to the orphaned Henry Peverell (via the Peverell Estate) and he lived there with his Aunt, Cousin and Great Aunt... Tunisia, Daniel and Arabella Morrisey, but they would have a lot of other people there most of the time, helping them fix up the Lodge. The on-going renovations were a good excuse to keep people out of the magical areas that they weren't supposed to see.

There was something else they needed to do before they moved into the Lodge though, get rid of all the blood tracking devices that Dumbledore had keyed to Harry to make sure he couldn't locate him once they left the Gringotts wards for longer than the visit they made to the cottage in Godric's Hollow. That was why the move was delayed until they removed the blood wards at Number 4 Privet drive and cleaned out Dumbledore's office and chambers. (Though that job had been expanded to include locating heirlooms like the invisibility cloak which wasn't at the cottage where it was supposed to be by then. While searching for heirlooms they found many of the same magical signatures on the ancient tomes in Dumbledore's private library so they took them too, and scanning an upset looking Fawkes revealed the forbidden blood bindings that had been used to tie her to Dumbledore so the curse breakers with them hacked away at the blood bindings until Fawkes was able to leave the office without Dumbledore and they took her through the portal to Gringotts to free her of the rest of the bindings on her.)

* * *

The day that they moved into Chase Lodge, alarms went off because someone had managed to get through the wards, but to their shock, the security goblins who raced to meet the threat didn't find Dumbledore, Death Eaters or any of the other nefarious characters they'd expect to be breaking through what were supposed to be impregnable wards, they found a little girl crying. What upset the warriors though was the fact that this little human wasn't afraid of them, she excitedly asked them if they were _dwarfs_!

Patricia Rakepick was the new Head Cursebreaker of Gringotts and she was there doing a final check on the wards, so she'd come running with the warriors to deal with the breach of their wards, but she couldn't help bursting out laughing at the affronted expressions on their faces. That was enough to diffuse the situation and they put their spears and axes down, some of them joining in the laughter as Patty knelt down beside the little girl and tried to speak to her in a non-threatening tone of voice.

"Hello Sweetie, how did you get in here? Is there anyone with you?"

There was another burst of laughter behind her as Pandora stepped in. "You're going to have to better than that when you have a little girl of your own Patty."

She bent down and picked the little girl up, settling her on her hip as she asked. "What's your name Sweetie?"

"Hermione Jean Granger!"

"That's a very nice name Hermione…. You can call me Pandora, or Auntie Pan if you like, this is my friend Patty and these little men are goblins…." She leant in to stage whisper. "They don't like being called dwarfs because they're a whole different people."

Hermione nodded seriously and turned to look at the warriors. "I am very sorry for calling you dwarfs Mister Goblins, I didn't know."

Ragnok almost burst out laughing but he kept a straight face as he bowed to her and said. "That is quite alright Miss Granger, as you said you did not know who we were, but I thank you for your apology. I am Ragnok."

Hermione nodded seriously again and said. "It's very nice to meet you Mister Ragnok."

Pandora decided to rescue Ragnok and got her attention again. "Is there anyone else here with you Hermione?"

She looked like she was going to cry again as she shook her head. "No, I'm all by my own, I'm sorry, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to be here!"

Pandora shushed her and stroked her hair. "Don't cry Sweetie, you haven't done anything wrong, we just thought this gate was locked so we got a surprise when an alarm went off…. Was the gate open when you got here?"

Hermione shook her head again. "No, I just knew I would be safe here and it opened when I pushed on it."

Pandora made sure that Hermione didn't see the glare she was directing at Patty over her head, and tried to keep her voice light as she said. "Well Auntie Patty better work out what went wrong with the gate then. We're glad to have _you_ here but we don't want just anyone coming in."

Patty took the rebuke in her stride and nodded, frowning as she looked at the gate and tried to work out what had gone wrong.

Pandora turned around and walked back towards the Lodge, talking to Hermione as she went. "Where did you come from Sweetie? Your Mummy must be worried about you."

Hermione shook her head again and only managed to get out "No, Mummy left me at day care but… _They tore up my_ _book __again_!" before she burst into tears, crying her eyes out.

That was when Pandora realised that she was clutching a children's book to her chest and she could see that half the pages had been torn out. She hugged her and kissed her on the head, promising that she'd fix her book if she couldn't get her a new one, but inside she was raging because there was no way a child Hermione's age could have torn up the book like that, it had to be an older child. What were they doing letting that sort of thing happen and even worse, letting a little girl like this run off? If anyone let this happen to her daughter she'd hex their tits off!

When they got inside Efa brought a cup of juice for Hermione when she was set down with the other kids and Pandora managed to prize the book off of her, saying that she thought that they had another copy of the book here and took it into the next room to copy it and then repair the copy, she would have repaired Hermione's copy but that would have taken too much explaining, and she wanted to shove that book in the bitch running the day care's face and ask her what she was doing allowing this to happen.

Hermione's face lit up when she saw the undamaged book and she was soon happily chattering away with Harry, Luna, Danny and Susan so Pandora left her there with Tuney watching them and headed off Gringott as he came storming in, because he'd come charging through the portal as soon as he heard that someone had walked straight through their new wards.

* * *

She threw up some silencing wards because even if the kids couldn't understand what he was saying the volume and tone got the message across, and Harry and Luna at least _did_ understand both Common and High Goblin well enough now to work out what he was saying.

Once he'd run down a bit she spoke. "I don't think many people _could_ get through these wards Gringott. This little girl is definitely magical, and I can feel she's quite powerful for her age like Harry. We added a layer to make sure our kids can get back inside the wards quickly if anything's threatening them and I believe that for some reason the wards actually recognised her as one of our kids."

He looked as though he thought she was crazy, but he wasn't dismissing the idea yet. Pandora dropped the silencing wards and they went back to _look_ at the girl. Gringott snorted because Harry was hugging her because she teared up whenever she saw her ruined book, so when Pandora obviously wasn't getting the point he whispered at her to have her _Veela_ _look_ at her and Harry. Pandora's eyes widened as she _saw_ what he was talking about and they went back into the other room to discuss it.

"When she got so upset about her book and running away from the day care centre…. I agree with you about them too, anyone showing that little care for the children they were supposed to be minding would be fed to the dragons in the Nation, she's been in here for over half an hour but we haven't seen _anyone_ looking for her outside….. Anyway, she must have been wide open and felt that there was someone who could care for her and followed the pull here. As you said the wards must have somehow recognised that her magic was reaching out to Harry's and let her in. That's quite impressive really but I'm still going to make Rakepick strip them down and make absolutely certain that no one _else_ can get through that loophole…."

* * *

He shook his head and looked at her.

"Okay, I've taken responsibility for the easy part of this, you're the human mother, what are we going to do about…. Hermione?"

She sighed and nodded. "I need to get the _whole_ story out of her, because I'm not sure her mother at least isn't part of the problem. From what she said, this wasn't the first time this has happened, so what is her mother doing, still leaving her at a place when bigger kids are repeatedly doing this sort of thing to her?…. Damnit! I don't know enough about this world to know how to handle it, but I _don't_ want to send that little girl back to be put through that sort of thing again!…" Her expression suddenly cleared and she blurted out "_Ted!_"

Gringott just waited for her to finish that thought. "Ted is used to raising a daughter in this world, and on top of that he's a damned good solicitor to boot so if we need to make it a legal matter he can!"

That was a more workable solution than anything he could think of, so he pulled out his communications mirror and called Ted. Ted was as angry as they were, possibly more so because he knew how common this was in today's environment, but then he stopped and gave a smile that would have done a goblin proud. "When, precisely, did.. Hermione?" Pandora nodded. "Arrive?"

She looked at her watch "Fifty three minutes ago."

He nodded. "Okay, where's the nearest police station to here? And do we know where this day care centre is?"

Gringott started to smile as he told Ted how to get to both locations, because he thought he could see where he was going with this.

"Pandora, can you see if you can get the torn up book from Hermione for me please?"

She was beginning to see where he was going as well and gave him a feral grin as she nodded and went into the other room and came back a few minutes later with the book. By then Gringott had managed to print out an image of what Hermione looked like, albeit being hugged by Harry, and Pandora provided an image of the little girl huddled against the wall in tears, that would work because it didn't show whether she was inside or out, so the story that they found her all alone outside, crying, should fly.

Neither of them was at all surprised when he laid out the plan to walk past the day care centre on the way to the police station and if there was no-one searching for Hermione at the day care centre he'd ask the police whether anyone had reported her missing.

Ted picked out a man who looked like a young father at the police station and made his enquiries, less than five minutes later he was telling the story to the sergeant, showing him what looked like polaroid pictures of the state Hermione was in when they found her and how she looked when he left, showed them what had been done to her book and repeated what he'd heard about it not being the first time. The young father constable left the police station an hour and thirty eight minutes after Hermione arrived at Chase Lodge (and they agreed that it would have taken her _at least_ ten or fifteen minutes to get there) and went to day care centre to ask whether any of the children were missing.

He was furious when he returned nearly an hour later. The Sergeant didn't bother reprimanding him for his language when he said that the bitch had taken over fifteen minutes to get off her fat arse to start looking for the kids and another twenty minutes to decide that Little Miss Bossy Boots (her words) wasn't there. He reported that she'd just shrugged when he asked how many times bigger kids had torn up her books there and said she didn't know, she was always upsetting the other kids, telling them what they should and shouldn't do and they usually got sick of it after a while.

At least it only took Hermione's frantic mother ten minutes to get there when they called her, and she was still wearing her smock from the clinic. She was horrified to hear that it had taken over two and a half hours for the woman to discover that a child that had been left in her care had disappeared, and that was only after the constable _forced_ her to look. She was also horrified to discover that Hermione's books were being torn up by bullies at day care because Hermione had told her that she'd lost them. Then she burst into tears because she knew she couldn't send her daughter back to that place, but she and her husband were both working six days a week just to cover the bills for their new dentists' clinic and there wasn't another day care centre anywhere near there.

Ted smiled at her, explaining that he and his wife both worked at their solicitors' office so he understood about how much time work took up, but he put the picture of Harry hugging Hermione and the smiles on all the kids' faces in front of her. "The little boy hugging your daughter is my daughter's third cousin, he's the reason our family has bought Chase Lodge and will be fixing it up for god knows how long. Harry was orphaned late last year and he went to live with his Aunt Tunisia, but her husband got violent when he drank and he flipped out and started hitting Harry for no reason one day so Tunisia hit him over the head with a fry pan, grabbed Harry and her boy Danny and got out of there. Tunisia's Aunt Arabella was widowed five years ago so she agreed to help Tunisia with the boys, and that worked out so well that the kids of four other friends who are around the same age and who's parents have to work are also being looked after by Tunisia, Aunt Arabella and whoever else has time to spend with them, my nine year old daughter often goes to them after school too. What I'm saying Missus Granger is that Harry's had a hard life so far so we try to do what we can to keep him safe and happy, from what I've seen your daughter is happy with our kids and Harry likes her, so why don't you come and see how Hermione's getting on with the others and have a think about letting her stay there with them instead of trying another day car centre who could be as bad as that bitch… pardon my French.. down there? By the way, the reason Tunisia and Aunt Arabella can afford to stay at home and watch the kids all day is that it was actually Harry's family's estate who bought Chase Lodge, so they were both able to invest the money they were going to use to buy another house and are living off that quite comfortably."

He snorted and looked at the policemen. "At the risk of asking for trouble, I should warn you that the woman who runs the day care centre may well find herself getting visits from Tunisia, Aunt Arabella and Pandora, the blonde girl's mother, and my wife and Amelia, the red headed girl's Aunt, as well for that matter when they hear about this, because all the women are saying they want to make it quite clear to her just what they think of someone who allows a little girl as delightful as Hermione to be treated like that… So do us men for that matter but we'll leave it to the ladies."

The sergeant gave an evil smile. "I do hope that we won't be _seeing_ any such hypothetical visits Mister Tonks, because as you know we would be forced to press charges if we witnessed a crime in progress."

Ted mirrored his smile. "Of course Sergeant, as you said, it's merely conjecture about a hypothetical possibility."

The Sergeant snorted and shook his head, muttering something about solicitors.

Then the Sergeant looked at Mrs Granger musingly. "Mrs Granger, would you be willing to come back and swear out a charge against the Tilgate Day Care Centre after you get the full story of what's been happening there from your daughter? I'd like to shut that bitch… pardon my French… down to protect other kids from the type of things that have been happening to your daughter, but to do that I'll need a lot more than the report of what happened today. If I can get more of a full picture from you, and some of the other parents as well, hopefully we can put a stop to her endangering kids like this."

Jean Granger nodded resolutely. "Yes Sergeant, I would, it won't be immediate mind you because from what I've been told Hermione has been traumatised quite enough for today, but I'll get the full story out of her and come back to swear out a complaint because that bitch shouldn't be anywhere near children!"

She turned to look at Ted. "I believe that you offered to show me how Hermione is getting on with the other children Mister Tonks? I really should be getting back but it would be irresponsible for me to be working in anyone's mouth when I'm this wound up, hopefully seeing that Hermione really is okay will help me settle down."

Ted nodded easily, standing and offering a hand to hand her up.

The constable piped up to ask if he could accompany them so he could confirm for himself that the girl was OK and close off the item for that day.

They all knew that it was more him wanting to see what things were like in there, but it was no skin off his nose so Ted looked a question at the Sergeant who thought for a bit and then nodded so he gave the constable an 'after you' wave.

Ted asked Jean if she had her car there but she shook her head. "No, we're just up in Salisbury Road so I ran down here when Sergeant Hopkins called."

They weren't running, or even hurrying, but they noted of the fact that it took them fifteen minutes to walk back to the gates for the Lodge and thought about how much longer it would have seemed for Hermione's little two and a half year old legs.

Jean didn't get to talk to Hermione though because the kids were having a nap when they arrived. She almost cried at how sweet Hermione, and she presumed Harry, looked as they were fast asleep with their arms around each other, but the relief of seeing her daughter asleep with a big smile on her face unlocked what many had described as her exceedingly dry and biting sense of humour. "Mister Tonks! You told me that my daughter would be safe here, but I get here to find her sleeping with a boy she's only known for a few hours!"

They were surprised to hear Tuney coming back at that in a snooty tone. "I can assure you Madam that my nephew's intentions are strictly honourable, but if anything untoward _does_ happen I will ensure that he does the honourable thing and marries her…. Unfortunately the law of the land will delay any wedding, because even a Gretna Green marriage is at least fourteen years and two months away for Harry."

Jean started giggling at that and had to hurry outside before she woke the children.

They ended up exchanging phone numbers and Jean said she'd call when they'd finished with their patients and come back with her husband then if it was convenient.

Ted gave the constable a brief tour of the public areas of the lodge and then headed back to his office as soon as the constable left, because they had a big event planned for the Wizengamot session in the morning, Sirius Black's trial.

* * *

They had set things up to ensure that they would be able to get Dumbledore into Gringotts and humiliate him so his pride would make him demand that the goblin responsible be punished for it, which was all they'd need to justify closing Gringotts for business for at least a day, it was only Rosier's arrogant stupidity that gave Ragnok justification to make it two days. The Wizengamot session tomorrow couldn't be cancelled but it was guaranteed that Dumbledore and most of the Wizengamot members wouldn't bother turning up with the upheaval caused by Gringotts being closed for business, so they could stack the deck by making sure that there were enough members of the Druid faction present to meet the requirements for a criminal trial, and Duke Arcturus Sirius Black-Gwynedd, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses, would be present in the Wizengamot for the first time in years to do what he could to get his grandson and heir exonerated and released. First thing in the morning a squad of trusted Aurors, led by Alastor Moody, would go to Azkaban to collect Sirius, taking a few Unspeakables with them.

A few of the Aurors would be remaining at Azkaban to arrest anyone and everyone who attempted to breach Amelia's order issued the day before that anyone who actioned orders that weren't proven to come from her or tried to go outside of the DMLE's chain of command for any reason would be fired and charged for any and all parts of their actions that could be deemed to be illegal. They knew that the Warden and half of the staff at Azkaban would be trying to get word to their true masters of what was happening, but it would be interesting to find out who their true masters were. They knew that Arcturus had a couple of men trying to watch over Sirius for him and they knew that Bagnold, Dumbledore and Malfoy owned several people there, but they were quite interested in seeing what other names were uncovered.

It panned out just as they planned in the morning. Alastor and his squad arrived without warning and stormed into the Warden's office to cut off the Warden trying to desperately make a floo call. One of the Unspeakables probed him and confirmed that he was trying to call Bagnold, so he was the first one arrested. They didn't waste any time, heading straight to Sirius' cell to get him and send him off to the Ministry to stand trial. In the end, aside from the ones Arcturus had watching over Sirius, there were only two members of Azkaban's staff who hadn't been arrested.

The Wizengamot members started getting suspicious when they saw how many of the ones present were from the Druid faction, and that old man Black was there, but they were stymied by Countess Griselda Marchbanks, as the senior Wizengamot member in the terms of years on the Wizengamot and one of the most senior in rank, being quickly sworn in as the Acting Chief Witch and as soon as the scheduled starting time for the Wizengamot session arrived, she announced that they were in session and ordered the chamber to be sealed. This was within the authority of the Chief Witch or Warlock but it was usually kept to extremely sensitive issues like the Death Eater Trials…. Or when the Chief Warlock wanted to lock out anyone he couldn't control, and the brighter ones in the chamber suspected that this was why the Chamber had been sealed, they hadn't realised yet that it was both.

When the Clerk of the Court called for any matters of import to be raised before they began the scheduled items Arcturus stood and announced that he was assuming control of all matters relating to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses and Vassals. He proceeded to the Stone of Truth (a large crystal mounted on a pedestal that served as a direct interface with the Magic of the Wizengamot and hence the Family Magics of Magical Britain) with his primary house rings visible and placed his hands on the Stone. A voice rang out to proclaim him. 'Duke Arcturus Sirius Black Gwynedd, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses.'

Arcturus left his hands on the Stone as he spoke. "I, Duke Arcturus Black Gwynedd, hereby revoke any and all voting proxies for the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses and Vassals. I now have sole authority to cast votes on behalf of any and all of these houses."

And the Stone responded by rote. "Duke Arcturus Black Gwynedd, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses, has revoked any and all voting proxies for the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses and Vassals and has sole authority to cast votes on behalf of any and all of these houses."

Everyone in the chamber, but especially those directly effected by the decree, felt the Magic of the Wizengamot wash over them as the decree was enacted and Arcturus bowed respectfully to the Chief Witch and Clerk of the Court before regally ascending the stairs to return to his box on the top tier. There was a lot of whispering going around the chamber as everyone tried to work out how to let their masters know what was going on, or were just expressing shock at what had just happened.

The Clerk of the Court called for the first item on the agenda, an appeal from the solicitors Rhys, Fawley, Fleamont and Tonks, as the legal executors of the estates of Duke James Charlus and Duchess Lily Rose Potter-Peverell, to overturn the illegal ruling to seal the wills of Duke and Duchess Potter-Peverell that was made in the Wizengamot the day after their deaths with no advice to or consultation with the legal executors of their estates.

The shouts of outrage were silenced and the transcript of the ruling made by the Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore with no legal justification was read out, along with the fact that the votes to pass it had not meet the requirements for a matter of that significance. Between the Druid Faction and Arcturus, they had more than enough votes to overturn the ruling to seal the wills and magically certified copies of the wills were read then and there. The more astute players present noted that the wills, and the inflammatory information exposed in them, was formally accepted into evidence, something that wills themselves would not qualify for.

The next item on the agenda was related, the equally illegal appointment of Albus Dumbledore as Harry Potter's Legal Guardian in Magical Britain, again instigated by Albus Dumbledore on the day after Duke and Duchess Potter-Peverell were killed. Given the fact that they had now sighted the Potters' chosen guardians for their son in the wills that were both sealed _and_ witnessed by Albus Dumbledore, there were even less grounds to oppose the issue, so Dumbledore's appointment as Harry Potter's Legal Guardian in Magical Britain was overturned.

They allowed the fiction of Harry's Godfather Sirius Black being ineligible to serve as Harry Potter's Guardian because he was in Azkaban to stand for now, as they were planning to stack the deck a little more, so his Godmother Baroness Pandora Celeste Lovegood was magically accepted as Harry Potter's Legal Guardian in Magical Britain. Once again, those in the chamber felt the Magic of the Wizengamot wash over them as she was magically accepted.

Now it was Pandora's show and she walked gracefully to the Stone. "I, Baroness Pandora Celeste Lovegood, having been magically accepted as the Legal Guardian in Magical Britain of Henry James Potter Peverell, Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses, hereby claim the title and rights of Regent for the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses."

After a pause the Stone responded "Baroness Pandora Celeste Lovegood has been accepted as Regent for the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses." and the Regent's ring magically appeared on finger.

Now she was going to have some fun. "As Regent for the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses I, Baroness Pandora Celeste Lovegood, hereby revoke any and all voting proxies for the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses and Vassals. I now have sole authority to cast votes on behalf of any and all of these houses."

And the Stone responded. "Baroness Pandora Celeste Lovegood, Regent for the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses, has revoked any and all voting proxies for the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses and Vassals and has sole authority to cast votes on behalf of any and all of these houses."

As before, the Magic of the Wizengamot washed over them and those directly effected by the decree especially felt it taking effect. The whispering was becoming shouts now, because over a third of the votes in the Wizengamot had changed hands with those two decrees.

* * *

After the chamber was silenced, the Clerk of the Court announced the next item on the agenda, and the crowd went wild. It took nearly half an hour to quieten them after it was announced that Earl Sirius Orion Black, Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses, was being tried for the crimes he was accused of on the Third of November Nineteen Eight One. The ones that were shouting that he couldn't be re-tried for the crimes he was convicted of in November just played into their hands, because that gave them the opportunity to show the proof that he had been neither tried _or_ convicted before this, he was just sent to Azkaban on a order signed by the Minister, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and then Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Bartemius Crouch Senior, which was patently illegal.

Some in the chamber also tried to argue that it wasn't legal to use Veritaserum on Pure Bloods, but Amelia suggested that they have another look at that law, because it only stated that they could not be _forced_ to take it, when the Pure Blood in question volunteered to take it (which Sirius was eagerly doing), it was perfectly legal to use it.

The Death Eaters in the chamber at least were arguing that there was no proof of what he was telling them, at most it was his impressions of what he saw, but once again that played right into their hands so it was decided to watch the memories of the events. Few people missed how fortuitous it was that they _just happened_ to have a team of the relevant Unspeakable experts on hand to authenticate the memories presented as being genuine and not being tampered with (except one, but that worked in their favour).

The first memory displayed shocked everyone in the chamber, because it _wasn't_ from Sirius Black, it didn't take most of them long to work out that the viewpoint was from a crib and many of them recognised Lily Potter and James Potter's voice calling from downstairs 'Lily, it's him, I'll try to hold him up while you take Harry and get out here!'. Lily Potter was holding his face and looking her son in the eye as she urgently incanted something under her breath and then kissed him on the forehead before turning to face the door as a figure with a twisted visage that they recognised at Lord Voldemort entered the room. Those versed in the old ways sensed that her words as she spoke to Voldemort were related to what she'd hurriedly incanted before he got there, but they watched as he cut her down with a killing curse as if she were vermin. They could see that Voldemort was also incanting something as he looked at the memory's originator (Harry Potter, obviously) and then he gave a cruel smile as he touched the tip of his wand to his forehead and cast a curse on him, while holding a gold armlet that must have been an Ancient or Most Ancient House heirloom in his other hand.

There was a brilliant flash of light and when the image cleared, Voldemort had been thrown across the room and was thrashing about as his flesh and bones turned to ash and fell away. About half of the people watching registered the fact that there was a significant difference between what they were seeing and the stories that had been told about that night, as there were no massive holes blown through the walls and ceiling of Harry's nursey, which made sense actually because the explosion of the stories would have most probably killed the infant Harry Potter. A while after the screaming and other noises stopped, they heard another voice. "My Lord?" "My Lord, what is wrong? What was all of that screaming?" as it came up the stairs slowly.

The figure that appeared in the doorway made half of the chamber gasp, because it wasn't Sirius Black, it was Peter Pettigrew, the one he was supposed to have murdered! He stopped, staring in shock at the pile of ash that was leaking out of the robes his master had been wearing, then got down on his knees beside the robes, quickly pocketing Voldemort's wand and then searching through the robes for something before looking around the room until he scurried over to pick up the armlet and pocket it. Many of the people in the chamber were disgusted watching him groping Lily Potter's corpse while he was stealing the jewellery she was wearing, and then he turned to face Harry Potter, pulling out his wand and obviously debating cursing him, but he kept glancing at the remains of his master worriedly, so the thought of the same thing happening to him was obviously going through his mind. At that point he was cut off by the 'crack' of someone apparating in outside so he swore and stuffed his wand into his pocket before turning into a rat and scurrying out the door.

The next figure who came through the door _was_ Sirius Black. He was distraught when he arrived and he only got worse as he took in Lily's body on the floor but when he registered that Harry was alive he rushed over to pick him up. He fussed over the bleeding scar on his forehead then hugged him tight as he burst into tears, whispering about how sorry he was that his stupid idea of fooling Voldemort had killed them and that he'd look after him as he'd promised his Mum and Dad.

They heard another 'crack' of someone arriving outside and Black spun to face the door, his wand appearing in his hand. They heard Albus Dumbledore calling out downstairs and Sirius answering in a hard voice "Up here old man." He wasn't quite as tense when he heard the voice but he didn't put his wand up.

When Dumbledore arrived in the doorway, those who cared to see what was in front of them saw that there was none of the care and compassion they were used to seeing displayed on the great man's face, in fact he looked angry as he took in what was in the room and they heard him mutter. "_This_ isn't how it was supposed to go!"

Most were shocked when he unexpectedly cast an "Obliviate!" on Black and took Harry Potter off of him, then told Black that he'd arrived just in time to see Pettigrew escaping and Hagrid came in just after he got Harry, so he handed Harry over to him to take him to Dumbledore while he went after Pettigrew to arrest him. Once Black had left Dumbledore cast some scans over Harry Potter and discovered something interesting about his scar, because he said. "You may be useful alive after all My Boy, but we can't have people looking into this or teaching you about how much power you have in our world because you need to learn to do whatever I tell you…. No, you can't be in our world at all or you'll give those thrice damned Druids the power they need to oppose me… That's it, I've heard your mother complaining about her sister and her husband over the listening charms, from what I've heard they'll do quite nicely to raise you the way I want you raised." He gave an evil chuckle. "But you won't know any of this… Obliviate!"

No-one was surprised when Black's memory of events at the house were obviously tampered with, or the discussions about who was going to be their secret keeper where he suggested that he'd be too obvious, but if they _told_ everyone it was him and then used Peter as the secret keeper, the secret would be much safer, and it would be a great prank to pull on Voldemort.

When they watched the memory of what happened when he caught up with Pettigrew, the sharper eyed ones in the chamber saw the look of glee in Pettigrew's eyes that told them he'd somehow set Black up, and Alastor Moody activated a rune to slow the playback down when curses started flying, so they clearly saw Pettigrew cutting off one of his fingers with a cutting curse and then casting a blasting curse at a specific object that caused a massive explosion in the street as he changed into his rat form and scurried away into the storm drains.

Most of them agreed that it was extremely suspicious that a squad of Hit Wizards and Obliviators managed to arrive almost immediately with Cornelius Fudge and stunned Black. The next thing in Black's memory was being revived in Azkaban with the Warden gloating at him that he'd never get out of there alive.

With that much irrefutable evidence, very few Wizengamot members were brave or stupid enough to vote against Earl Sirius Orion Black, Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses, being pronounced innocent of all charges and released with an apology so the vote to officially clear him of all charges was almost unanimous.

While no-one was game to try and argue with them, Sirius was magically accepted as both Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses, and as sharing Harry's legal guardianship. There was no legal barrier to both Sirius, as Harry's sworn Godfather, and Pandora, as his sworn Godmother, being magically and legally accepted as Harry's guardians and did not interfere with Pandora's role of Regent to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses, but it added the power of the Houses of Black and Gwynedd to the forces protecting Harry.

* * *

Many people were surprised when it was Lady Augusta Longbottom, Regent for the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Longbottom and its Associated Houses, rather than Duke Black-Gwynedd or the Potter-Peverell Regent who moved that Albus Dumbledore be dismissed from the position of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot of Magical Britain on the basis of illegal tampering with the affairs of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses and attempting to end the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Potter and Black. The opposition to this proposal was less than expected, because most of them were still shaken from what they'd seen of the actions of the _Great Man_ with their own eyes.

It was only the most ardent Dumbledore and Bagnold supporters and the Death Eaters who were bright enough to understand that they didn't have a viable candidate to put forward to replace him who voted against removing Dumbledore as Chief Warlock, and it passed with a strong majority. It _was_ Arcturus who moved that they vote in a replacement for Dumbledore immediately because not having an accepted Chief Witch or Chief Warlock would cripple the Wizengamot's ability to do its job, and his status prevented anyone arguing with the notion.

Earl Tiberius Ogden nominated the Acting Chief Witch, Griselda Marchbanks but she put a caveat on accepting the nomination. "No _honest_ members of the Wizengamot can argue that we've witnessed a lot of abuse of the power that one person can wield in the position of Chief Warlock or Chief Witch, and those of us who have sat on the Wizengamot for more than forty years can attest that Albus Dumbledore wasn't the first one to abuse that power..." There were nods from most of the ones who had been members of the Wizengamot for several decades. "Therefore I propose that the single position of Chief Warlock or Chief Witch be replaced with a panel of _three_ Chief Warlocks or Chief Witches. I have been a member of the Wizengamot for nearly a century and unlike some, I take my responsibilities very seriously, so I have studied the legal systems from both the Magical and Muggle worlds to better determine what is fair and right. This panel of three judges that I have referred to has been proven in many parts of the world, _including_ the International Confederation of Wizards' Judiciary, to be the best and fairest way to handle matters of major importance, because any decision of importance is agreed by at least two of the three judges, _not_ according to one witch or wizard's personal preferences or agenda. Therefore, rather than vote in a new Chief Warlock or Chief Witch, I strongly believe that we should vote in a panel of three of them. We may be able to determine guidelines where a single Chief Witch or Chief Warlock presides over minor matters and sessions, with the proviso that if a sitting Wizengamot member demands that the full panel be convened because the matter at hand is deemed to be escalated, the proceedings will be put on hold until the other two Chief Witches or Chief Warlocks are in attendance, but that is something that can be determined once the panel has been elected. I therefore move that the single position of Chief Witch or Chief Warlock be replaced by a Presiding Panel of three elected Chief Witches or Chief Warlocks, who will determine any significant matters by majority vote between them."

Augusta Longbottom was on her feet before anyone else. "Seconded!"

Griselda looked at the Clerk of the Court and he nodded with a smile. "The motion to replace the single position of Chief Witch or Chief Warlock with a Presiding Panel of three elected Chief Witches or Chief Warlocks, who will determine any significant matters by majority vote between them has been moved and seconded. All those in favour of this motion, please cast your votes."

It passed with a stronger majority than dismissing Dumbledore had, because most Wizengamot members thought they'd have a better chance to get something through a panel than they would someone who opposed them.

On the second round of nominations, Griselda accepted the nomination, as did Tiberius Ogden, and in the end the only one who wasn't part of the Druid Faction who was voted onto the panel was Baron Elphias Doge, who while a Dumbledore supporter had nearly eighty years of experience in the Wizengamot and had been a legal advisor to the Wizengamot for three quarters of that so no-one could question his qualifications, or his integrity for that matter. So he, Griselda and Tiberius made up the Presiding Panel of the Wizengamot.

They processed the rest of the matters on the agenda and closed the session, and half the people in the chamber just about ran out as soon as it was unsealed because they couldn't wait to tell their masters, if not _everyone,_ what had happened in the session.

* * *

One person who didn't run out when the chamber was unsealed was Arthur Weasley, the new head of what was commonly regarded as the biggest joke in the Ministry, the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office (_and_ Baron Arthurus Septimus Weasley, Head of the Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Weasley, but he didn't actually know about that because his memories had been interfered with). Arthur had been ordered to attend this session to make up the required number of official Ministry representatives because more important Ministry Officials couldn't be bothered wasting their time doing so. The reason Arthur was waiting though was because he felt he needed to talk to his boss, Director Bones, about something to do with what he'd seen in Harry Potter and Sirius Black's memories.

Amelia was irritated at first when Arthur Weasley approached her, because for all the fact that she was elated about what they'd achieved here, it had created a mountain of work for her and she wasn't really in the mood to waste time dealing with one of Dumbledore's junior supporters. That irritation disappeared in a flash when he finally got to the point, that he thought he may know where the rat, Pettigrew, was… Because one of his sons had caught a rat over winter and made a pet out of it… And that rat was missing the same toe on its front paw as Pettigrew had when he disappeared into the drains in Sirius Black's memory.

Luckily the chamber had almost emptied by then, because Amelia made a bit of a scene as she called Alastor Moody and Rufus Scrimgeour to come with them as she dragged Arthur Weasley off to her office. Fifteen minutes later she came out of Arthur Weasley's memory with a grim smile on her face because it looked as though he was correct.


	3. Moving On

**There's been a couple of amendments to the last chapter to correct something I forgot previously, sorry, this being that Harry' nursery wasn't blown apart when Voldemort attacked him, that was merely an embellishment of Dumbledore's to add to the legend. That never made sense to me, because how would a toddler come out of an explosion that blew out the walls and ceiling relatively unharmed, seems like a plot hole to me.**

**Okay, there's going to be a departure from my usual playlist in this story, in that Molly is the only Weasley who is fed to the dragons. But she isn't really a Weasley, she's a Prewett, the apple of Aunt Muriel's eye who didn't fall far from the tree. When I stopped to think about it, I realised that the Harlot of Hogwarts has lost nine and a half years of the time she used to poison the minds of her children in stories set in the original timeframe, so even Ronald the walking stomach should still be redeemable at this point if she's out of the picture.**

**I couldn't resist a Jan and Dean (60's American music) pun for the Grangers, so sue me. ;^)**

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

It was after 6:00 PM when Jean Granger called to ask if she and her husband could come down to pick up Hermione and meet everyone, so Tuney invited them to dinner, shooting down their protests about imposing as she said that they always made more than they thought they'd need because they never knew how many people would be there around dinner time.

They were watching the mirrors linked to the monitoring runes when the Grangers arrived because it would be interesting to see how much magic they had. The notice-me-not and muggle aversion charms around the gates weren't as strong as the ones masking the Leaky Cauldron, but if they were true muggles they'd have trouble seeing or coming up to the gates. When Ted brought Jean and the Constable down earlier they'd both been carrying his business cards, which were charmed to negate the effects of the gates' aversions. The Constable had mentioned something about the place having a creepy old castle feel about it so he was obviously a 'proper' Muggle, but Jean hadn't been displaying any reaction like that, so it would be interesting to see what happened this time.

Neither Dan or Jean seemed to have any trouble coming up to the gates, and the discussion they were having about hoping that this worked out for Hermione so she could have some friends bode well for them. Tuney and Arabella went out to let them in, taking Hermione with them, and Dan and Jean were happy to see their little girl looking happier than she'd been in quite a while, other than when she was having a nap with Harry perhaps. Tuney handed Hermione over to Jean before leading them back to the lodge and Dan was avidly taking in the Sixteenth Century architecture of the building. The carriage house doors were open so the family's strange car collection was on display (a 1965 Lincoln Continental Executive Limousine, 1974 XJ Series II, 1972 Aston Martin DBS V8 and a 1976 Mini Clubman Estate), and Tuney laughed at Dan's reaction to the cars.

"The Lincoln, Jag and Aston Martin were Harry's father's cars and the Mini is Aunt Bella's. As you can see, Aunt Bella and I didn't exactly travel in the same circles as Harry's family, even though my ex husband liked to put on airs far more than they did. He would have been horrified about the idea of having a pile of kids in his car but they wouldn't have turned a hair at the way we use the Lincoln if we want to take the kids somewhere as a group. While Harry's father loved to take the DBS he was given as a graduation present out for a spin, the Lincoln was mainly there for the expected trappings of their station so it usually only came out when they were required to really put on a show for big events as they used the Jag whenever they could get away with it for those things. They generally drove Lily's Cavalier, and they were in that when they got cleaned up by that drunk driver… Harry was the only one who survived, possibly because he was in the back seat… Anyway, we're pretty much the same, because Aunt Bella's Mini gets more use than anything else."

They closed up the carriage house and headed inside.

Dinner was a fun affair, with the Grangers, Tuney, Arabella, Harry, Danny, Susan, Dora, Luna and her parents, Neville and his Grandmother and Blaise and his mother. Dan was feeling more than a little outnumbered but Xeno was taking it in his stride so he just went with the flow.

Arabella gave him and Xeno a tour of the Lodge after dinner while Jean stayed to chat with the other mothers. Dan thought that there were quite a lot of areas of the building that were closed off, but her explanation that they'd only gotten a few key areas renovated enough to move into so far and it was going to take them ages to finish rebuilding and renovating a building this size that dated back to the Sixteenth Century made sense.

By the time the Grangers left to go home, they'd all agreed that it would be wonderful to have Hermione there with the other kids instead of in some day care centre where she might get bullied again, so either Jean or Dan would bring her down in the mornings, come and get her for lunch if they could manage it and pick her up as soon as they finished work.

All in all, they were quite happy with that solution, though Dan and Jean probably would have been concerned if they heard the discussion about _them_ after they left.

Xeno started it off. "They're both high level Squibs, not witch or wizard level but pretty close to it and Jean obviously has elf blood in her. What did Hermione's inheritance test determine about the families they're from?"

Pandora looked at the parchment in her hand. "Well Dan is from the dormant senior line of the Dagworth Granger family but Jean is more interesting, because she's actually from the senior line of the Hufflepuff family that has been thought to be extinct for at least four or five hundred years. So Hermione will be in line to claim Head of House for both the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Hufflepuff _and_ the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Dagworth Granger unless someone else comes in with a strong enough claim to have the family magic accept them before she's old enough to be accepted. But more to the point, there aren't any close links between her bloodlines and Harry's so we don't need to separate them before they can become a couple and start a family."

Tuney laughed at that, until she realised that she was serious. "You don't _really_ believe that we need to be making decisions about whether or not it's safe for them to have kids when they're twenty two and thirty one months old, do you?"

"Actually yes_, _I _do_ Tuney. You don't know enough about magic to understand how magical bonds work yet. You see Hermione's magic drew her to Harry before she'd ever met him and Harry's magic responded to her and makes him want to protect her whenever she's upset. Gringott, Xeno and I can _see_ magical links and theirs is already stronger than many married couples', so at this rate I wouldn't be at all surprised if we reached the point where it's impossible to separate them without doing both of them harm within a year or two….."

She looked to make sure that Dora was out of earshot. "In the powerful old families, excessive inbreeding tends to result in insanity, the Blacks are the best known examples of that in Britain, Dora's Aunt Bellatrix and Great Aunt Walburga are both utterly insane and powerful witches. Harry's Grandmother is _also_ a Black so if Hermione came from a Black bloodline too the probability of their children being both crazy and insanely _powerful_ would far too much to risk. Once they become a couple, their magic _will_ ensure that they have children when they reach maturity to propagate their line. _That_ is why we needed confirmation of Hermione's bloodlines because if they were too closely related we would have had to get Harry away from her before it's too late to separate them. I _do_ want them to be happy and can see that that's most likely to happen if they're together, but the price is too high if that means destroying our world."

Tuney looked at the others, trying to work out whether this was a joke, but they were all deadly serious and agreeing with Pandora… She was beginning to wonder whether she'd ever understand the magical world.

* * *

Amelia looked at Arthur Weasley, trying to see to the boy who ended up breaking her heart in their final year at Hogwarts, but she just couldn't see that Arthur in the man sitting in front of her. That made her think about all the bindings, compulsions and other manipulations that so many of their group had discovered that they'd been subjected to by Albus Dumbledore and she wondered whether Arthur was another one of Dumbledore's victims…. it was the only thing that made sense really….

"Arthur..."

"Yes Director Bones?"

"No, this is more of an Amelia discussion Arthur. I'm not talking to you as the Director of the DMLE, I'm talking as someone who once cared a great deal for you…."

The confusion on his face convinced her that she was right, and the growl coming from Moody behind her said that he was thinking the same thing, so she forged on.

"Arthur, I would like your permission to have our healer check you for compulsions and potions, because quite frankly I don't think that you're really in control of yourself. I suspect that it was very difficult for you to come forward with this news today, and it felt like something was holding you back…."

He just nodded, wondering how she knew that.

"So, do I have your permission to have our healer examine you? Please Arthur, I really do believe that this is in your best interest."

He could see that she was telling the truth, and that she was actually worried about him. He didn't understand that but he had a feeling deep inside that she was right, it would be in his best interest to go along with this, so he nodded.

"If you feel that this is necessary Direct… Amelia, then yes, I will see the Department's healer."

An hour later the normally placid, ineffectual Arthur Weasley was furious. He had a headache that the potions couldn't fix from having so many bindings, compulsions and memory manipulations removed and he felt sick from the flushing potions he'd taken, knowing that over half of the potions' effects were so deeply ingrained that it would be months before he was close to being free of them and he had a driving need to throttle the life out of Mary Margaret Weasley and Albus Dumbledore.

He realised that they couldn't afford any more delays because something about Sirius Black's trial was bound to be reported on the Wizarding Wireless today and if they were right about who Percy's rat really was, he'd do a runner as soon as he heard. That was why the only thing he said to Amelia about what happened at Hogwarts was that the last thing he really remembered about them was that Uncle Arthur, as Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Weasley had told him that he had to break up with her because it would cause a scandal if the Heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Weasley was caught carrying on with the Bones girl when he'd been betrothed to Mary Margaret Prewett since his Second Year at Hogwarts, but other memories that were released showed that he'd been obliviated and fed potions numerous times since then to stop him arcing up when he found out that Molly was still living up to her nickname from Hogwarts.

Amelia growled at that, but gave him a quick hug and told him they would sort this out after the caught the rat and brought the Harlot of Hogwarts in for questioning. Arthur started to agree then stopped. "Wait! Can we get confirmation of my children's true names and status? And find out who's currently controlling the House of Prewett?"

"Yes, but why?"

"One of the things that came back to me is that Charlie, the twins and Ginny are officially _Prewetts_, rather than Weasleys, and I believe that Charlie inherited the titles of the Head of the House of Prewett when Molly's brother Gideon was killed…"

"_And?_"

"As was brought up in Sirius Black's trial, Pure Bloods can't be forced to testify under Veritaserum, but if they're cast out of every Pure Blood family they're part of, they're no longer accepted as _being_ Pure Bloods… So if I'm right about Charlie and he claims his titles as Head of the House of Prewett as I did the House of Weasley and we cast her out of the Houses of Prewett and Weasley, there's no legal way of stopping you questioning her under Veritaserum. And if I'm right about who's making the decisions for the House of Prewett, that will show Charlie his mother's true colours."

Amelia grinned, _this_ was her Arthur! She looked around and then pulled him into her office and cast privacy wards before pulling out her communications mirror and calling Gringott. Ten minutes later they left her office with smiles on their faces and a scroll that confirmed that nine year old Charlus Prewett-Weasley would become Baron Prewett, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Prewett if the Prewett Family Magic accepted him, along with others that said that Arthur had been accepted as Baron Arthurus Septimus Weasley, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Weasley and that Mary Margaret Weasley was currently Regent for the the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Prewett.

They checked again to confirm that there had been no reports on the Wizarding Wireless about Sirius's trial before Arthur stepped through the floo to his house with Amelia, apologising for forgetting to bring the parchments for the case tried this morning to the office, and Amelia came back with "As long as I get them into the file before anyone goes looking for them we should be fine Arthur, so could you just go get them please?" then stayed chatting with Molly while Arthur raced out to his shed (Alastor Moody was already on-site and had mirror called Amelia to say that the son with the rat was outside with the other kids).

Molly was obviously nervous and jumped when they heard a "Stupefy!" from outside, but she turned around to angrily demand to know what was going on to see Amelia's wand pointed at her and hear a second. "Stupefy!..." She heard the "_Bitch!_" that went with it as she lost consciousness.

Arthur came back in with the rat in a cage and the kids, nodding to Amelia to say that the detection spell had confirmed that the rat was indeed an animagus. When the kids were settled around the table with some juice. Amelia nodded to Charlie and Arthur nodded, calling him over.

"Charlie, I've discovered some very upsetting things this morning, things that your mother was part of and kept from me. Unfortunately the Death Eaters that killed your Uncle Gideon and Fabian and others like them made it illegal for Pure Bloods like them to be made to answer questions that they can be punished for. For the good of the family, I believe that your mother needs to be made to answer the questions we ask her and be punished for what she's done, but I need your help for that…." He Charlie him the scrolls they got from Gringott.

Charlie was confused. "What is this Dad? My name is Charles Gideon Weasley, not _Charlus Prewett Weasley_."

"Do you know what the Obliviate spell does?"

Charlie nodded. "This is part of what your mother's done Charlie, she's lied to all of us about the true state of our family and obliviated me of your true names. The reason your true name is Charlus Prewett Weasley is that the betrothal contracts Uncle Arthur signed with the Prewett family when we were in our Second Year at Hogwarts were apparently set up to continue both family lines, so as far as inheritance goes Bill, Percy and Ron are Weasleys and you, the twins and Ginny are Prewetts, all of you who are of the Prewett line have Prewett Weasley as your surname but no middle name, …." He smiled at his other sons. "Bill, Fred and George didn't escape this either, Bill's real name is actually Bilius Arthurus Weasley, Fred's Fredericus Prewett Weasley, George is Georgius Prewett Weasley and Ginny is Ginevra Prewett Weasley so Percy and Ron are the only ones who are known by their true names."

"Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is that, under the old laws, you can claim your titles now and be able to make decisions as the Head of the House of Prewett…. Decisions your mother is currently making without your knowledge as Regent for the House of Prewett. Going by what we know about what your mother has done, I have to ask you to do that if you feel you can handle it, because the only way to make sure that she's punished for what she's done to us is to cast her out of both the Prewett and Weasley families so that she is no longer accepted as a Pure Blood and they can force her to tell the truth about what she's done. Is that something you can do Charlie?"

Charlie looked in his father's eyes and saw a fire that he couldn't remember seeing before, and sensed that he was seeing his real father for the first time. He looked over at where his mother was laying unconscious and bound on the floor and remembered that his father had looked more satisfied than worried when he saw her like that as they came into the house, which wasn't like the dormouse he'd known as his father up until now. That brought back what his father had said about his mother lying to them and doing things to them and looked at Bill. He'd obviously been taking in the same things and gave him a nod of encouragement, so he made a decision and nodded as well.

"Yes, I can do that Dad."

Arthur hugged him. "I'm proud of you son. Now all you need to do is hold up your hand and say 'I, Charlus Prewett Weasley, hereby claim my titles and rights as Head of the Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Prewett', and if the Prewett Family Magic accepts you you'll feel it and the Prewett Ring will appear on your finger."

"What if it doesn't accept me?"

"If it doesn't you'll just hear that you're not ready yet."

Charlie nodded and threw his shoulders back. Raising his hand he said. "I, Charlus Prewett Weasley, hereby claim my titles and rights as Head of the Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Prewett!"

There was a slight pause and then a flash and the four Prewetts especially felt the family magic reacting as the Prewett House ring appeared on Charlie's finger.

Arthur bowed to Charlie. "May I be the first to congratulate you on your acceptance as the Head of the House of Prewett, Baron Prewett?"

Charlie returned the bow. "Thank you Baron Weasley."

Arthur frowned as he tried to remember what they needed to do. "Oh yes! You won't be able to disown your mother if she's still Regent for the House of Prewett… Do you trust me to do the right thing by your house Charlie?"

Charlie nodded. "Yes Dad."

"Thank you Son, what you need to do now is cancel all offices currently held in the House of Prewett and appoint me as Regent for the House of Prewett, if you're sure that's what you want to do?"

Charlie nodded seriously. "Yes!"

"Okay, you need to hold your House Ring up again and say 'I, Baron Charlus Prewett Weasley, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Prewett, hereby cancel all offices currently held in the House of Prewett and appoint my father, Baron Arthurus Septimus Weasley, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Weasley to act as Regent for the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House or Prewett, with all rights and authorities associated with the position of Regent for the House of Prewett."

Charlie ran through that a couple of times until he was sure he had it right then raised his hand with the house ring and pronounced. "I, Baron Charlus Prewett Weasley, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Prewett, hereby cancel all offices currently held in the House of Prewett and appoint my father, Baron Arthurus Septimus Weasley, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Weasley to act as Regent for the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Prewett, with all rights and authorities associated with the position of Regent for the House of Prewett."

Charlie's house ring flashed again and the Prewett Regent's ring appeared on Arthur's finger.

Charlie looked at his father. "What do we do now Dad? Are we casting Mum out of the families now or are we doing it later?"

Arthur looked at Amelia. "Director Bones? How do you advise we handle this?"

She didn't correct his form of address, because he was right, this _was_ a Director Bones matter.

"I had thought to wait and see if she was going to force us to do this, but looking at it from your family's perspective it would actually be less traumatic and public if it was done here…. That would also help prevent any record of Mary Margaret Weasley being arrested appearing in the system, which in turn would probably help us keep ahead of anyone trying to stop us charging her."

Arthur nodded. "What order should this be done in?"

Amelia thought about that for a moment. "The House of Prewett first, then Weasley. If you cast her out of the Weasley family first, there's a faint possibility that the Prewett Family Magic might allow her to revert to her mother's maiden name once she's cast out of the Prewett family, but if she's already been cast out of the Prewett family that can't happen."

Arthur nodded again and looked at Charlie, who just asked. "What do I need to say Dad?"

"Hold up your Head of House ring and say 'I, Baron Charlus Prewett Weasley, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Prewett, hereby cast Mary Margaret Weasley, daughter of the House of Prewett, out of the Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Prewett for bringing shame on the Noble and Ancient House of Prewett though her actions."

Charlie nodded and stood tall, raising his hand as he recited what his father had told him. There was a flash from the ring and they all felt the family magic reacting to the decree.

Arthur squeezed Charlie's shoulder then stood tall and held up his Head of House ring as he proclaimed. "I, Baron Arthurus Septimus Weasley, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Weasley, hereby order the disillusionment of the marriage between Baron Arthurus Septimus Weasley and Mary Margaret Weasley, recalling the bride price paid by the House of Weasley, and cast Mary Margaret Weasley out of the Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Weasley for bringing shame on the Noble and Ancient House of Weasley though her actions."

His ring flashed as well and they felt the magic washing over them as Arthur's decrees were accepted. While still unconscious, Molly No-Name was moving uncomfortably as her body was reacting to losing the family magic of the Houses of both Prewett and Weasley.

Now that the family business was done, Amelia called Moody and his squad in. After they'd revived Molly and the rat and forced Pettigrew back into his human form (as it was more painful that way), they put magic suppressing shackles on both of them and pulled the house apart looking for evidence on Molly and Pettigrew's activities.

It took a while for the fact that she was being referred to as Molly No-Name to register with the ex-Mrs Weasley (if must have killed her to have to pass up being addressed as _Baroness_ Weasley just so Arthur was kept in the dark about his title), but they had to silence her when it did because that type of language certainly wasn't suitable for children's ears. It didn't take Arthur long to agree that the children shouldn't be exposed to this and that he trusted Amelia to send them somewhere safe. Pandora came over with Sally, the Potter elf that Efa loaned to them for Luna, and packed enough clothes to tide them over for a while before popping them off to the Lodge.

The twins, Ron and Ginny settled in with the other little kids straight away but Bill, Charlie and Percy were at loose ends until Tuney got them talking about the home schooling they'd been getting. That let her set them up with reading material to tide them over until she could get formal home schooling material which would give them an official education record in the normal world.

They quickly came to the conclusion when they were questioning Mary Margaret No-Name that while Albus Dumbledore was nowhere near as brilliant as he considered himself to be, he _did_ have a genius for covering his arse, because while they were getting enough incriminating evidence on Molly to bury her in Azkaban for decades, they weren't getting enough hard evidence on anything to get a conviction on Dumbledore, even Arthur's memories didn't give them anything concrete to charge him with, the man was Teflon, they just couldn't get anything to stick on him.

* * *

While Mary Margaret hadn't been tried yet, Arthur _had_ ordered the disillusionment of their marriage and recalled the bride price that the House of Prewett demanded of the previous head of the House of Weasley, his namesake Uncle Arthurus (his father must have been currying favour with the next Head of the House of Weasley when he named his firstborn).

The fortune of the Weasley family had been gambled away by Arthur's Grandfather, who had then engineered a marriage between his youngest son Septimus and Cedrella Black, a daughter of the House of Black, in hope of getting access to some of the Black fortune through his new daughter-in-law. He had underestimated the pride and stubbornness of the then Head of the House of Black, Sirius the Second, though, because his reaction to the marriage had been to cast Cedrella out of the House of Black without a Knut to her name.

The Heads of the House of Weasley didn't seem to be able to learn from experience though (or perhaps he thought he was being clever), because Arthur's Uncle had entered him into a betrothal contract with Mary Margaret (Molly) Prewett when they were in their Second Year at Hogwarts, and had signed over Weasley Manor to the Prewett family as the bride price for Molly. Arthur had never had the opportunity to talk to his uncle and find out his reasoning for this, he presumed that his uncle's plan had been for them to inherit the Prewett money and recover Weasley Manor when Molly's Aunt Muriel died, thereby restoring the fortunes of the House of Weasley, but Aunt Muriel was too mean to die so the House of Weasley was still broke and Muriel Prewett still had Weasley Manor (the Prewetts were a fairly new Noble House, so while they had money, they weren't old and established enough to have one of the old Manor Houses and Muriel had coveted that symbol of an established house, the last two Heads of the House of Weasley had done their best to cover up the dire financial straits their House was in, so perhaps she'd been under the impression that the House of Weasley still had money).

However Arthur had followed the required formula to reclaim the bride price from the House of Prewett and Amelia had gotten him access to Gringotts to lock down the Prewett Vaults while they were closed. As the magically accepted Regent for the House of Prewett, Gringotts was prepared to share the information that Muriel Prewett had sufficient funds in her personal vault to live comfortable for a fair while if she wasn't too extravagant, though she would doubtless demand funds to purchase herself a new home for herself. Arthur didn't like the idea of the Prewett fortune being spent to buy that old battleaxe a new home, but he suddenly smiled.

"Can it be arranged so that when we retake possession of Weasley Manor, Madam Prewett and those items belonging to her are transferred to the current Weasley residence near Ottery Saint Catchpole, known as the Burrow? The Burrow is to remain as the property of the House of Weasley, but Madam Prewett may have possession of it for as long as she lives."

Dragonclaw (he had the Weasley, Prewett and Lovegood Accounts among the lesser accounts that he controlled) gave him a delighted grin at that, because he'd had to deal with Muriel Prewett all too often when she was Lady Prewett, and he loathed the harridan, so the prospect of being able to tell her that she was being moved into what she'd so loudly and often decried as 'That hovel my niece and her children are forced to live in.' by the new Lord Prewett was something he was most definitely looking forward to, but it needed something more in his opinion.

"Baron Weasley, if I may ask, is the new Baron Prewett, your son, taking appropriate measures to secure the Prewett heirlooms?"

Arthur could see that the Account Manager was trying to tell him something. "Which heirlooms are you referring to Account Manager Dragonclaw?"

"For a House that has existed for such a short period, the House of Prewett has acquired and identified a wealth of heirlooms, including numerous goblin artefacts such as the goblin silver tiara that the current Lady Prewett traditionally wears at significant events. I have noted that many of these heirlooms are not in the Prewett vault where they can be properly protected. I was hoping that the new Head of the House of Prewett would be taking measures to address this, but I have not seen evidence of this happening as yet."

'Hmm, _this_ was a game that should be fun to play.'

"That _is_ a worry Account Manager Dragonclaw. I believe a large part of the problem is the fact that the new Baron Prewett is neither aware of what the Prewett heirlooms are, or where they may be located. I am aware that it is possible for the Head of the House to call Heirlooms of their House to them, but they would then have to be moved to the Prewett vault, and I believe that the heirlooms must be individually identified as they are called."

Dragonclaw had a glint in his eye now, because the human was heading in the right direction. "While that is indeed the most commonly used method to recall family heirlooms Baron Weasley, there is another method that was created to secure the family heirlooms in an emergency. So long as they are not hidden by strong wards, this will recall all the family heirlooms to the family vault."

Arthur had a smile that would have done a goblin proud on his face now. "That sounds like just the thing to secure the House of Prewett's treasures Account Manager Dragonclaw. Can you tell me how to invoke this, so that I can pass it on to Baron Prewett?"

"It is quite simple Baron Weasley, you merely hold up your House ring and say I… state the full title of the Head of House… hereby recall all heirlooms of the House of … your House… to the… family name... family vault!… As I said, it was created as an emergency measure so it was designed to be done quickly."

Arthur nodded appreciatively. "Very impressive Account Manager Dragonclaw! I better try this myself before I tell Charlie, I mean Baron Prewett, to do it though, to make sure that I've got it right."

He raised his hand with the Weasley ring and stated in a clear voice. "I, Baron Arthurus Septimus Weasley, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Weasley, hereby recall all heirlooms of the Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Weasley to the Weasley Family vault!"

The head of house ring flashed and they felt the Weasley Family Magic acting on the decree. Arthus smiled at the goblin. "I must admit to being anxious to see whether it worked Account Manager Dragonclaw, so if we are done here, would you excuse me so that I can go and see what is in our family vault?"

"I must admit to being curious myself Baron Weasley. Would you allow me to accompany you?"

Arthur bowed to him, "Most assuredly Account Manager Dragonclaw." and with that, they headed for the carts that would take them down to the vaults. When the vault door opened, Arthur was astounded, because there was far more in there than he'd ever seen, a lot of it things that he'd either never seen before or had been made to forget about permanently.

Dragonclaw had been managing the Weasley account for over a century, so he recognised far more than Arthur did and was amused to see many things that had been used to settle Arthur's grandfather's debts when he bankrupted the house. Obviously many of the family heirlooms hadn't been legitimately transferred in the shady deals used to pay off the old Baron Weasley's debts. There would doubtless be many people angry to find that their ill gotten gains had disappeared, and more than a few others who had bought some of these items off of them, but none of those deals were legitimate, otherwise the items would not have been returned to the Weasley vault. He turned to Arthur.

"It appears that the recall of the Weasley heirlooms was successful Baron Weasley."

Arthur was still looking at the contents of the vault in amazement as he said. "It does indeed!"

He shook himself as he realised that he wasn't acting appropriately for a Lord of a Noble and Ancient House and turned to bow to Dragonclaw. "The Houses of Weasley and Prewett thank you for bringing this means to secure their family heirlooms to our attention Account Manager Dragonclaw."

Dragonclaw returned the bow. "It is the duty of Gringotts to serve its clients to the best of our ability Baron Weasley, so while appreciated, your thanks are not necessary."

Arthur looked at the contents of the vault again and gave an evil smile. "It we are done here, I am anxious to advise Baron Prewett to do the same."

Dragonclaw gave a sharp toothed goblin smile that didn't bode well for someone. "Indeed Baron Weasley, that would best be done as soon as possible..." He hesitated, because he really wanted to stick it to Muriel Prewett, and her niece too, and the Weasleys had just become part of a very important group. "While it is not my place to interfere Baron Weasley, I am aware that Over Chieftain Gringott has a means to get Baron Prewett here directly, others of The People do so as well but only Over Chieftain Gringott can authorise anyone else to use this. As your family has very recently come to be included in a group who are important to The People, I am anxious to do what I can to support you, so may I suggest that we approach Over Chieftain Gringott to ask whether the young Lord Prewett can be brought here to do this?"

Quite frankly, the idea of approaching the Leader of the Goblin Nations terrified Arthur, but Dragonclaw wouldn't have suggested it unless he was confident that the request would be well received, so he nodded. "If you think that's a good idea Dragonclaw, yes."

Gringott wasn't too impressed with being interrupted by a junior account manager, but when he heard what they wanted to do he laughed. Like most goblins, he didn't like to pass up the chance to stick it to the arrogant Pure-Bloods and while she was ineffectual, Muriel Prewett nee Crouch was insistent enough to make a nuisance of herself, so he took Arthur Weasley to the Lodge to collect his son, the Lord Prewett.

At the Lodge, Arthur heard one of the little girls asking why he was wearing a dress and realised that she must be Muggle-Born, but Gringott hustled him into the other room where Bill, Charlie and Percy were doing lessons before he could say anything to her. He and Charlie were hustled out and back to Gringotts just as quickly.

They went down to the Prewett vault to see what was currently in there, and it was a bit of a shock to see just how much gold there was in there, but they were there to do something and Arthur coached Charlie though recalling all the Prewett heirlooms to the vault. As Dragonclaw had said, there were a _lot_ of heirlooms, and they could have sworn they heard Aunt Muriel screaming from there, though that may have been their imaginations. With that done, Gringott had Charlie returned to the Lodge and Arthur went back to the Ministry.

* * *

An hour later, Arthur was summoned to Barty Crouch's office. He sent a note to Amelia advising her of the summons, explaining that it was probably relating to the fact that both Molly and 'Aunt Muriel's belongings had disappeared, and Amelia decided to accompany him.

When they walked into Crouch's office he barked. "What are you doing here Bones?"

Amelia smiled to herself, as she'd been wanting to put this disgrace to the DMLE in his place for a long time. "That's _Director_ Bones to you Crouch! As you were so fond of reminding everyone in your day, the DMLE is the most important department in the Ministry and its director deserves respect, _especially_ from the head of a _lesser_ department!" Crouch was obviously about to explode at that but she cut him off. "But as to the reason I am here, one of my minor department heads advised me that he had been _summoned_ to your office, so I've come to remind you of the missive I sent around the Ministry after that trouble with Gringotts some idiots caused by going around DMLE procedures, the one that said that _every_ request for DMLE assistance must come through me!"

Crouch gritted his teeth. "This is not a request for DMLE assistance at this point _Director_ Bones, it is a family matter! My aunt contacted me with concerns that she cannot get in touch with…. my cousin… who is married to Weasley here so I told her that I would find out what happened to cousin Molly." He grimaced at having to refer to Molly Weasley as his cousin, but Amelia was delighted, this just got better and better.

"So you decided to _summon _one of my department heads to your office on a personal matter without any explanation? What makes you think you have the right to take my department heads away from their work without my approval? Especially when a simple note to Mister Weasley asking why his…. _w__ife_…. cannot be contacted would have been sufficient? Rest assured that a formal complaint will be made to the Minister for your frivolous interference in my department's operations Crouch!"

Crouch started to arc up again but it was Arthur who cut him off this time. "If you'd simply sent me a note as Director Bones suggested Mister Crouch, I would have advised you that I have no idea where my ex wife is. I ordered the disillusionment of our marriage and cast her out of the Weasley family for bringing shame on the family, because I was presented with irrefutable evidence that she has continued to behave like the Harlot of Hogwarts all through our marriage. She left after that and I neither know nor care where she went. Therefore there is no longer any family business between us and I would thank you not to contact me on anything other than official Ministry business. Good day!"

With that he turned and walked out the door without another word while Crouch sat there, staring at him with his mouth open. Amelia struggled to keep a straight face as she nodded to Crouch, barking "Crouch!" dismissively at him and turning to follow Arthur.

She grabbed his elbow when she caught up with him and whispered for him to come to her office, Once they were inside she quickly threw up privacy wards and they burst out laughing. "Thank you Arthur, I've been waiting for a chance to put that supercilious bastard in his place for years, but the look on his face when you told him that you called for the disillusion of your marriage to his _cousin_ and cast her out because she'd continued to behave like the Harlot of Hogwarts all through your marriage was priceless!"

Arthur smiled. "I must admit that it was rather cathartic to be able to throw that in his face after all the comments I had to put up with from him when he was the Director of the DMLE, but I better get back to the office because Perkins doesn't do much if I'm not there. Thank you for your help... Amelia."

Amelia gave him a hug. "It was my pleasure Arthur, after all these years we still make a good team."

That got another smile from him. "That we do Amelia." And with that he left.

* * *

Minister Bagnold actually helped them with another problem they had, because she called an Emergency Wizengamot Session for the day after the Gringotts closure finished to try and overturn what had been decided in the scheduled Wizengamot session, and more importantly, have those arrests at Azkaban wiped out. Their problem was getting Molly No-Name and Peter Pettigrew to trial before someone found a way to block them, as they couldn't afford to take the risk of calling attention to their trials by calling an Emergency Wizengamot Session, but now the Minister had done it for them.

It was amusing to see the Wizengamot benches packed in the emergency session, Bagnold, Dumbledore and Malfoy must have called up everyone in their factions and ordered _everyone_ to attend, never mind that a third of them could no longer cast votes in the Wizengamot, and more than a few others were going to lose their votes by the time they got into the scheduled items. They had been doing a considerable amount of research over the last few days, and had uncovered centuries old vassal agreements that had never been revoked, agreements that applied not only to houses who were part of the Druid Faction, but the Progressive Factions as well, and they had quietly advised those houses of what they'd discovered.

When the Clerk of the Court called for matters of import to be addressed before they proceeded with the scheduled items, Arthur was the first to step forward, cancelling any and all voting proxies that applied to the Houses of Weasley and Prewett and claiming sole authority to cast votes for his houses and their vassals, but he was only the first of a long line of Heads of House and Regents who did this. Bagnold and Dumbledore were horrified as they saw their factions losing more and more votes the longer this went on, but when they tried to stop it they were slapped down by the Presiding Panel. Of even more concern to Dumbledore was the defections from his Faction to the Progressive Factions, as some houses who accepted the truth of what had been revealed in Harry Potter's memory refused to be associated with him. By the end of it, the Druid and Progressive Factions appeared to control at least half of the votes in the Wizengamot, but Bagnold couldn't let this stand so she charged forward, hoping to win some back before everything settled.

She didn't have much luck, on overturning Dumbledore's dismissal and replacing him with a panel of three, both had been voted in with a bigger majority than when Dumbledore was voted in and the margin for the confirmation vote was even more.

On overturning the sealing of the Potter wills and appointment of Dumbledore as Harry's _Magical_ Guardian (there was no such thing as a Magical Guardian, as noted in the submission by Rhys, Fawley, Fleamont and Tonks, the true role was Legal Guardian in Magical Britain), they were just thrown out, as they had been proven to be illegal actions based on fraud on the part of Albus Dumbledore.

When they tried to wipe out the arrests of the Warden and other staff at Azkaban, they lost due to the irrefutable evidence that they had wilfully gone against the direct orders of the Director of the DMLE that were issued and acknowledged just the day before, so the stated punishments were applied.

It was their attempt to overturn Sirius Black's trial where things got really interesting, because they called the Unspeakable Augustus Rookwood to refute the fraudulent authentication of the memories of the infant Harry Potter and Death Eater Sirius Black. Amelia had a field day.

"So you are accusing the Director of the Department of Mysteries, also known as the Head Unspeakable, Baron Croaker, of fraudulently attesting to the qualifications of the Unspeakables who authenticated the memories that were submitted to evidence in Lord Sirius Black's trial, is that correct Mister Rookwood?"

He started to waver but a threatening gesture from Bagnold made him nod. "Yes. I do not know how the Death Eaters forced Baron Croaker to go along with them, but they did."

"I see, could you roll up your sleeves for me please Mister Rookwood?"

There was a storm of protest and when it was finally silenced Amelia explained. "I find it interesting that Mister Rookwood is accusing Baron Croaker of working for the Death Eaters when both the Department of Mysteries' wards and an independent witness have identified him as being a marked Death Eater. I realise that a number of marked Death Eaters were released after the war on the basis of their statements that they were held under the Imperius curse for however many years they were Death Eaters, but Mister Rookwood was never tried and found to be innocent of being a willing follower of _Lord_ Voldemort, so I must presume that he was, in fact, a willing follower."

She smiled to herself as she heard a few names being tossed about as they speculated about who this witness was, making note to send Aurors after the ones named. After letting that go on for a while she motioned to the DMLE Patrol officers to bring Pettigrew in, and like with Sirius, it took nearly half an hour to silence the chamber.

Some idiot shouting that they couldn't prosecute him because he had been awarded an Order of Merlin, First Class made Amelia smile again, because they made it so easy.

"Yes, he was awarded an Order of Merlin…. _Posthumously_! In case you don't know the word, posthumous means _after death_! The fact that he is sitting here alive means that he did _not_ do what he was awarded the Order of Merlin for!…. Refresh my memory Professor Dumbledore, you cast the fidelius on the Potters' cottage in Godric's Hollow, did you not?"

Dumbledore could see where this was going but couldn't refuse to answer. "Yes."

"So you _knew_ that the Secret Keeper was not Sirius Black as you said, but in fact it was Peter Pettigrew, did you not?"

He tried to lie his way out of it. "I was certain that Sirius Black was the Secret Keeper, if it was in fact Peter Pettigrew, the Potters must have cast another fidelius charm with him as the Secret Keeper."

"I'm not sure that you are being totally honest with us Professor Dumbledore, but just for the sake of argument, what happens to the Fidelius charm if either the caster or the Secret Keeper dies?"

He sighed, because she obviously had the facts for this. "If the caster dies, the fidelius collapses, if the Secret Keeper dies, everyone who has the secret becomes a Secret Keeper."

"So if the Potters did in fact cast another fidelius with Pettigrew as the Secret Keeper, the fidelius would have collapsed, which we know hasn't happened…. but if Pettigrew had been killed by Sirius Black as was claimed, then everyone who had the secret would have known because they would now be Secret Keepers…. Given that Peter Pettigrew has confirmed Sirius Black's testimony that he was the secret keeper, and that you cast the fidelius, it is quite apparent that you are lying Professor Dumbledore!"

"Someone must have changed my memories of the event!"

"I find that rather doubtful Professor Dumbledore, but we'll get back to that later. The immediate reason for Mister Pettigrew being here is this, please repeat the names of the known Death Eaters you reported to the DMLE in your questioning Mister Pettigrew, starting with those presently here in the chamber."

"I… I don't remember..."

"You're lying Mister Pettigrew, never mind, if you won't tell us voluntarily, you will do so under the influence of Veritaserum. Officer, bring me a vial of Veritaserum."

The chamber erupted with shouts that she couldn't do that until she silenced them with a "_**QUIET!**_" that left everyone's ears ringing.

Amelia turned to the Presiding Panel's bench and bowed respectfully. "My Lady Chief Witch, My Lords Chief Warlock, the Pure Blood defence against forcing Mister Pettigrew to testify under Veritaserum does not apply here because Pettigrew is, in fact, a Half Blood, but this furore highlights a serious problem we have in bringing criminals to justice. The contention that forcing _Pure_ Bloods to testify under Veritaserum is an affront to the honour to their houses and families is ludicrous. The fact is that only guilty parties argue against testifying under Veritaserum because they have something to hide, in fact we had the same people trying to stop Lord Sirius Black testifying under Veritaserum because they knew that it would prove his _innocence_. Ever since Veritaserum was created, strict guidelines have been in place to prevent the parties being questioned being asked about matters unrelated to the issue at hand, so the DMLE cannot ask them anything willy nilly. I must question why my predecessor as the Director of the DMLE did not raise this when this discriminatory law which only protects the interests of those of a particular blood status who are afraid of being made to tell the truth of their guilt or innocence was passed…. Though I note that he is of that blood status so perhaps he has guilty secrets he is trying to keep hidden."

She looked up at Crouch, who had murder in his eye. "For this reason, My Lady Chief Witch and My Lords Chief Warlock, I hereby move that the law exempting those of Pure Blood status from being made to testify under Veritaserum if they refuse to do so voluntarily be repealed!"

Arcturus Black stood and shouted out "Seconded!", making his stance on the matter clear.

Griselda Marchbanks gave him a subtle nod and addressed the Clerk of the Court. "Mister Fawley, the matter has been moved and seconded, I see no reason to allow the session to be bogged down with old debates on the matter, so please put it to a vote."

The Clerk of the Court nodded with a wry smile. "The proposal to repeal the law exempting those of Pure Blood status from being made to testify under Veritaserum if they refuse to do so voluntarily has been moved and seconded. Please vote now if you support this proposal…." After the first vote he asked "Please vote now if you oppose this proposal…"

They were pleasantly surprised by how big a margin the proposal was passed by, obviously a lot of people were sick of seeing ones they knew to be guilty getting off because they couldn't be forced to admit their guilt.

Pettigrew's testimony added another nail to Dumbledore's coffin, because he confirmed that Dumbledore had indeed cast the fidelius with him as the secret keeper, and also that Dumbledore had warned him that Black was after him, so he had time to set a trap for Black. After all the other disgusting acts that he testified doing, it was mainly the Death Eaters and staunch Dumbledore supporters on the Wizengamot who voted against him being sent through the veil of Death, after his Order of Merlin was stripped from him. The Death Eaters didn't want a precedence to be set in case they were put on trial again, and the Dumbledore believers were still swallowing his shite that no-one should be killed (unless it was him sacrificing them to his 'Greater Good').

After Pettigrew, Rookwood and a few other Death Eaters who didn't have enough gold to get Ministerial protection were processed, Molly No-Name was brought in.

Crouch and Dumbledore were livid when they realised that she'd been in the DMLE cells the whole time and there was nothing they could do to stop her being sentenced to twenty years in Azkaban. It had only been fifteen years until Pandora Lovegood pointed out that it would be unfair to the children she bore to allow her to be released around the time they were finishing at Hogwarts as she might interfere with them trying to get a start in their adult lives. When Pandora suggested that adding another five years to her sentence would allow them to get themselves established so she would have less opportunity to ruin their chances of success, the majority of the Wizengamot agreed with her.

Pandora and Amelia cornered Dumbledore before he could get away and demanded to know where Harry was. He gave up on the argument that it wasn't safe to disclose Harry's location when Amelia threatened to arrest him and had to admit that he didn't know where Harry was, because the wards he'd put up to protect his location had dropped a couple of days ago and he couldn't find any sign of him now. Pandora and Amelia tore strips off of him for kidnapping, hiding and then _losing_ Harry and promised bloody retribution if anything happened to him. Of course they had been shouting at the top of their lungs, so the headlines tomorrow were going to be something along the lines of Dumbledore stealing and then losing the Boy-Who-Lived, which was what they wanted from that little scene.

All in all, it was a very good day for Amelia and their side, but a very _bad_ day for Dumbledore, Bagnold and the Death Eaters.

Bagnold was starting to have second thoughts about aligning herself to Dumbledore and the Death Eaters for their gold and power, because they'd already lost much of their power and the writing was on the wall that their gold would be next. She had to admit a certain grudging respect for how well Bones had played this, because the one she'd thought of as a Hufflepuff Duffer had managed to outsmart _her_, the Ravenclaw…. Dumbledore too, but she knew that he was nowhere near as brilliant as most of the Sheep of Magical Britain thought he was…


	4. Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, Hogwarts?

**Okay, I know there's still one person reading this, but don't know what's happened to everyone else.**

**Sorry, there are more changes to the previous chapter, I should have checked Bill's birthday before I wrote him into the story because he won't start at Hogwarts until September 1982 as he was born in November, so he's now gone to the Lodge with the rest of the Weasley kids.**

**Luna is five and a half months older this time to tie her in better with Harry and Hermione growing up (yes, it will be the three of them together again), so her birthday is on the Twenty Eighth of August. Story line is that the Three Musketeers (Lily, Pandora and Alice) were all pregnant at the same time, but Pandora was a bit behind the other two. Neville may end up with two red headed partners in this one.**

**NB: If you're an AD fan, you _won't_ like this chapter, so please just skip it.**

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

Immediately after Pettigrew and Molly No-Name's trials, it was suggested, and everyone agreed, to break the fidelius that Dumbledore had cast on the Potters' cottage and then immediately cast a new fidelius with one of them as the Secret Keeper. Gringott's original plan had just been to irritate that old bastard Dumbledore, but when he stopped to think about it, he realised that a far more important consideration was safeguarding Harry's memories by preventing Dumbledore or anyone else doing anything to interfere with the cottage where his family had lived, and his parents had died, and that cottage had great historical value in Magical Britain.

It was Tuney who had suggested the perfect Secret Keeper and they called Efa to ask whether she'd safeguard the secret for the Potters' cottage in Godric's Hollow…. As they all knew, that had been a superfluous question as she and Emyr would do anything to protect Harry and the Potter family. Anyway, with the decision made, they did it straight away, before it occurred to Dumbledore to raid the cottage to see what else he could steal, and it seemed that they hadn't done it a moment too soon because ten minutes later the monitoring devices they had mounted outside the cottage showed Dumbledore wandering around Godric's Hollow, looking for something (the cottage, obviously).

Whether he was there because he had been trying to visit the cottage or because he suddenly forgot where it was though, Dumbledore couldn't resist trying to cause more trouble…. Because as Regent for the House of Potter, Pandora received a demand to turn over the cottage to the Ministry for it to be made into a National Monument to mark their triumph over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The demand to surrender the cottage claimed that Dumbledore had cancelled the fidelius over the cottage so that it could be turned over to the Ministry, but she had illegally cast another fidelius over the cottage before he could do so, so she was ordered to cancel the fidelius and release the cottage to the Ministry.

While the urge (if not the need) to hex the ones who made the demand into the next century was almost overwhelming, cooler and wiser heads prevailed and they had Rhys, Fawley, Fleamont and Tonks formally accuse Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic of both making false charges against the Regent for the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses and attempting to _steal_ Gryffindor Cottage, a very significant historical property which had belonged to the Potter Family for nearly eight hundred years and was valued at over Fifty Million Galleons. Bagnold was bright enough to have made sure that she wasn't left holding the bag, so it would be interesting to see which senior Ministry officials got thrown under the Knight Bus to make this go away.

* * *

A key family in their group who had had a remarkable change of fortunes over the month of June was the Longbottoms. While Dumbledore was reeling from the events of the day he was banned from Gringotts, the current Lord and Lady Longbottom had been pulled out of St Mungo's (where they'd been since a week after James and Lily Potter died because Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange and Bartemius Crouch Junior had been let through their wards and tortured them into a state where they reportedly had no awareness of the outside world in an attempt to find out where their master, Voldemort, had gone to) and taken to Gringotts to be given proper healing. Gringotts' healers managed to free them from being imprisoned in their minds in less than a week and another week had healed them of most of the effects of being trapped inside their heads and being given inadequate care for seven months.

Frank managed to shock the Wizengamot chamber into silence in the next scheduled Wizengamot session when he used the Stone of Truth to confirm that he was indeed Earl Francis Alfred Longbottom, Head of the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Longbottom and its Associated Houses (effectively returned from the dead in the minds of many in the chamber), and then formally changed Augusta's position from Regent to the House of Longbottom to Steward of the House of Longbottom, because both he and Alice had both gone back to the Aurors...

As had Lord Sirius Black, who had actually gotten enough of a wake up call from his betrayal and seven month ordeal with the Dementors in Azkaban to start growing up.

The Weasleys had moved into Weasley Manor (after the goblins replaced the wards with much stronger ones which restricted access to trusted people _only_) by the end of June, and the new wards prevented others learning that Amelia and Susan were rather frequent visitors. Most of the children were young enough to accept the story that it was so that Susan wouldn't be lonely, but while shielding their younger siblings from their mother's machinations had made Bill and Charlie grow up too fast, it also meant that they were mature enough to be happy for their father and 'Auntie Ami'.

On the other hand, Barty Crouch Senior learnt that the new _Baron_ Weasley wasn't someone to cross when he tried to force him to return everything that had been stolen from his Aunt Muriel, and that the penalties for the Head of a _Minor_ House attacking the Head of a Noble and Ancient House _and_ the Regent of a second Noble and Ancient House that he had direct familial connections to were quite severe. Crouch had refused to see Arthur as anything but what his Aunt Muriel described him as, the bumbling idiot his cousin was married to, so he never dreamed that there could be serious ramifications for attacking him in public. He quickly discovered two things to his peril, the first being that the Noble Houses are bound to stand together when it comes to dealing with their inferiors, and the second that it's dangerous to call attention to yourself when politicians like the Minister are looking for someone to throw to the dragon to appease them.

Millicent Bagnold watched how much support _Baron_ Weasley was getting from the ones who now held the balance of power in Magical Britain in the arguments over Crouch's claims that he had stolen Weasley Manor from the previous Lady Prewett and decided to use this to try and get the Druids and Progressives on-side, while at the same time appeasing the House of Potter about the cottage debacle, which she hadn't been told about until it was too late to stop that letter of demand being sent.

That was why Bartemius Crouch Senior, Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Horace Branxton, Director of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and Cornelius Fudge, 'Junior Minister' for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes (who was just a political appointment put there to clean up the Pure-Blood houses' messes for them) were selected to be the ones sacrificed to appease the House of Potter. Crouch had been the one who pushed to throw Lord Black straight into Azkaban to give them some good publicity at the end of the war, so between the trouble that caused, the issue of his son being one of the ones who put Lord and Lady Longbottom into St Mungo's and the latest embarrassments he had caused by interfering with the DMLE and making patently false accusations against the surprisingly assertive _Lord_ Weasley, he was definitely going to be the first head on the chopping block!

The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and Cornelius Fudge in particular, had also been an embarrassment since the truth about the extremely suspicious circumstances of _Lord_ Sirius Black's arrest came out, and she knew that Bones would be watching that department closely after what happened with Black anyway so she was hoping that sacrificing Branxton and Fudge along with Crouch would be enough to keep the people who mattered at the Ministry safe.

That was why, when the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Potter demanded satisfaction from Dumbledore and the Ministry for attempting to defame and steal from the House of Potter, the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Longbottom demanded that the Houses of Lestrange and Crouch pay proper compensation for their attack which had left Lord and Lady Longbottom incapacitated in St Mungo's for seven months and the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Weasley demanded compensation from the Minor House of Crouch for its unfounded and untrue accusations against the House of Weasley, she instructed her people prepare cases to throw them all to the wolves to address the items scheduled to be presented by the three houses at the next Wizengamot session.

The Noble Wizard House of Lestrange forfeited all its titles, holdings, properties, belongings, monies and _vassals_ to the House of Longbottom. Frank promptly turned around and offered to return any items in the possession of the House of Lestrange which rightfully belonged to the House of Black to them, an offer that Duke Arcturus graciously accepted. The Minor Wizard House of Crouch also forfeited a third of its total worth to the House of Longbottom, and the Head of the House of Crouch forfeited his position as Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation (a significant asset in a world which still worked on the principle of buying commissions) to the Head of the House of Longbottom.

In the case presented by the House of Weasley, the House of Crouch forfeited its Baronetcy, the holding supporting the title (which included their pretentiously named residence Crouch Hall) and two thirds of their remaining total worth to the House of Weasley. They could see that Crouch was worried about this development and thought that it was because after what he'd lost, he was just about broke, but they found that the House of Crouch was worth a surprising amount as nearly half of the Crouch fortune had been enough for the House of Weasley to recover to almost the position they had been in before Arthur's grandfather bankrupted the family.

In the case presented by the House of Potter, the Dumbledore Family forfeited half of its total worth (excluding _Aberforth_ Dumbledore's personal holdings) to the House of Potter, Bartemius Crouch forfeited half of his remaining worth, and Horace Branxton, the Director of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and Cornelius Fudge, Junior Minister for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, both forfeited their positions at the Ministry and half of their total worth to the House of Potter. After a brief consultation between the Regent for the House of Potter and their allies, the positions of Director and Junior Minister for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes were formally ceded to Baron Weasley, Head of the House of Weasley, who indicated that he would be assuming the position of Director and eliminating the Junior Minister position, allocating its salary and official duties to others in the department, as well as issuing directives similar to the ones the Director of the DMLE had issued after the Gringotts debacle for this department. This last sent a message to the Pure Blood Houses, the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes would no longer be cleaning up their messes for them, and what they were donating to the Ministry to fund that position was being forfeited as a reminder and penalty for their actions.

Bagnold was beginning to see that she'd underestimated these people, but shrugged philosophically, as it was too late to worry about now that it was done.

* * *

They found out why Crouch had been looking so worried when the Weasleys arrived later that day to claim Crouch Hall (before Crouch could hide things that were supposed to be forfeited to them), because the supposedly dead Barty Crouch _Junior_ was being held there under the imperius curse. The Crouch elf Winky put up a surprisingly furious defence of her 'young master' until they got it through to her that she now belonged to the House of Weasley and she was bonded to Arthur.

An emergency Wizengamot session was called the next day and Crouch Senior _and_ Junior were both tried. When they were questioned under Veritaserum, it came out that Crouch Senior's dying wife had made him promise to swap her for her son in Azkaban and she'd died there, polyjuiced as her son a few days after he'd left, polyjuiced as _her._ Barty Senior hadn't changed his attitude about the vicious Death Eater he had for a son but he had promised his wife to look after him, so he kept him under the imperius curse to prevent him escaping and getting his father into trouble by showing himself to still be alive. Barty Junior was confirmed to be a rabid animal and the mandatory punishment for escaping Azkaban was death, so he was sentenced to be put through the Veil of Death. Barty Senior was given the mandatory punishment for use of the unforgivable curses other than under the war legislation for the Aurors, a life sentence in Azkaban, and everything else that still belonged to the House of Couch was forfeited to Sirius Black for Barty Senior instigating his being thrown into Azkaban without a trial and then helping his own son escape from Azkaban.

Bagnold didn't make any attempt to stand in the way of the Crouches' punishment because the fact that she was Baroness Bones, Regent for the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Bones wasn't the reason she had been pushed to replace Crouch when he was pushed out in disgrace for having a rabid Death Eater for a son, it was just the reason that it wasn't worth trying to fight her appointment. While she was higher up the food chain in Magical Britain than anyone else in the DMLE, the reason she was put forward by Master Auror Moody as the best person to take over the DMLE was the fact that she was the _only_ Auror that he'd ever rated high enough to take on as his apprentice, and she'd lived up to his expectations quite well.

She had to admit that when it came to the job, _Baron_ Moody had never let Noble House politics influence him, Bones had caught his eye as an angry, driven and extremely capable Auror trainee and earned enough of his respect for him to officially take her on as his apprentice after she became an Auror. Living up to Moody's standards had made it easy for her to earn her Defence Against the Dark Arts Mastery, even though they pushed her harder than anyone else, purely because she was the only apprentice the legendary Alastor Moody had ever taken on. Bones had already shared Moody's unwavering views on integrity and the law of the land before she became his apprentice, but after years with him she was almost as unbending as he was, so arguing for leniency for the Crouches would have been a waste of time and favours that would be better spent elsewhere.

* * *

Remus Lupin's (the last member of James Potter and Sirius Black's group of close friends at Hogwarts called the Marauders) situation didn't change immediately, because even after they tracked him down and had all of the compulsions and memory manipulations removed from him, it had still taken _proof_ that his real name was in fact _John Remus Lupin_ (Lupin family tradition was to give their children wolf related middle names, like the Blacks and their constellation related names), _not_ Remus John Lupin,_ and_ that it had been the _Great_ Albus Dumbledore who had changed his name to Remus John Lupin at the Ministry right after his parents were killed and he had been turned by Fenir Greyback under very suspicious circumstances when he was five, to begin to break him free of his mindless devotion to Albus Dumbledore. When he finally started thinking though, Remus took a big leap of faith to change his life.

While it wasn't commonly known, the goblins had a hideously expensive, painful and dangerous process to cure Lycanthropy. Even where the one suffering from Lycanthropy had an incredibly strong will there were no better than two to one odds for their surviving the treatment and the goblins didn't give refunds, but Sirius used the money he got from Crouch and Arcturus covered the rest of the payment for the treatment because Remus was just about all he had left of his old life.

After he had been cured and magically accepted as Baron John Remus Lupin, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Lupin, Remus retook his OWLs and NEWTs with the ICW and took his Defense Against the Dark Arts Mastery exams to gain his mastery…. Then he became Steward of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses in November to take some of the load off Pandora, because she was still an active Unspeakable.

He was still Remus in private but he was Baron John Lupin in public. Wiping out all official records of Remus John Lupin in Magical Britain had effectively removed him from existence because with the attention span of goldfish, most of the sheeple of Magical Britain didn't make any connection between the raggedy orphan who finished at Hogwarts in Seventy Eight and the polished Lord Lupin who re-entered Magical Britain's Noble society from Europe four and a half years later as a Vassal of the House of Potter.

* * *

Around this time, a baby, two more little girls and two more witches as minders were added to the group at the Lodge…. Astoria and Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis and their mothers Celeste Greengrass and Elana Davis. The Senior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Greengrass had been aligned and friendly with, but not actually allied to, many of the major Druid Houses for centuries, and seventy odd years ago they had forged a mutually beneficial business alliance with the Minor Ancient Wizard House of Davis (most of the successful Wizard Families bought Baronetcies to elevate their status and give them a voice in what was happening in the rather elitist Noble House run Magical Britain). This business alliance had quickly developed into a close family friendship and the House of Davis became vassals of the Noble House of Greengrass to bring them under the protection of a powerful Noble House.

They were brought closer into the fold when Godfrey Greengrass agreed to become one of Magical Britain's new representatives to the International Confederation of Wizards after Frank became Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and a comment about wishing the girls had more friends to play with because they were running Celeste ragged with the new baby led to them being introduced to the children at the Lodge. The Greengrasses and Davises swore the same oaths of secrecy in regard to the Lodge and everyone in it that everyone else who interacted with others in the Magical world had, and Celeste, Elana and the girls fitted in with everyone else at the lodge quite well.

Aside from Celeste, Elana and the older children, life at Chase Lodge was pretty much removed from what was going on in _Magical_ Britain most of the time. What it came down to was that they had a baby, a dozen toddlers between one and three and another seven kids between four and thirteen to look after most of the time and that was quite enough to keep the adults occupied (it also made it necessary to bring the Potters' Bedford JJL Midibuses with all the Knight Bus' enhancements added down from the Potter Manor garage because they wouldn't have been able to explain how that many kids fitted into the Lincoln with their minders).

One of the warders' more important jobs at the Lodge in Tuney's opinion was getting snakes to stay at the other end of the chase from the Lodge, because the woods came right around the Lodge (part of what made it so private) and after she saw a snake in the woods she wouldn't allow the toddlers to run around outside until she was sure that the area around the Lodge was completely snake free. This meant that it was another week before Harry and the other little kids were allowed to play outside, and in that time the entertainment room the goblins had created for them got a good workout.

Whether through human intermediaries or directly, using glamours, the Goblin Nations interfaced with the Muggle world far more than the Wizarding world did, and they adopted new technologies of the Muggle world before most Muggles did (some of which would be a nasty surprise for the Wizards if they ever tried to start another war with the Goblin Nations). This meant that the entertainment room at Chase Lodge had been set up with the latest quadraphonic sound system and the best NTSC video projector available (which was connected to a LaserDisc player and both VHS and Betamax VCRs and plugged into the sound system), as well as a large screen PAL rear projection TV that was _also_ hooked up to a LaserDisc player and VCRs.

This equipment allowed them to listen to music and watch movies from all over the world, as well as getting all the local television broadcasts. The much bigger size of the rear projection TV and projection screen and better picture and sound quality of the LaserDisc movies meant that it wasn't too difficult to get the Grangers over for movie nights, so they had more chances to get to know them.

Of course it wasn't only the Grangers who were amazed by the entertainment room, because the ones who had been raised in the Magical world couldn't believe that things like movies and record and CD collections existed…. For that matter most people in the Muggle world would never believed that private LaserDisc, record, CD and audio and video cassette collections the size of theirs existed for that matter, but the Grangers never got to see the expanded library rooms in the basement where their full disk, record, tape and book collections were stored in stasis, they only saw the transfigured copies of the originals that were brought out each time to choose from…. The Weasleys probably spent more time watching movies than anyone else, and it took Amelia punching him every time he did it for quite a while to stop Arthur asking about everything he saw.

Bill, and to a lesser degree Charlie and Dora, didn't have as much free time to watch movies as the others though, because Tuney and Arabella and the others helping out with the magical subjects were trying to get them caught up on their non-magical education and prepare them for their magical education….. And as the one who was starting Hogwarts in three months, Bill was working hard. On the magical side, Arabella was mainly focussing on Potions because Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout on the teaching side and Hestia Jones from the students' perspective had all told them that the new Potions Master Severus Snape (or Snivellus as Sirius and James called him) refused to teach anyone but his Slytherins properly and in particular seemed to hold a grudge against all Gryffindors. None of them were at all surprised that any complaints about his behaviour or demands that he be made to behave like the professional he was paid to be were fobbed off with empty platitudes by the Great Albus Dumbledore.

Since the anti-snake wards were established, the little kids spent a good deal of their time playing outside, making the most of the weather. The Lodge was located at the northern end of the chase, but the woods extended right to the boundaries in every direction, with little more than the short driveway to the Lodge and the grounds around the Lodge itself cleared, so while they could be seen from above, they were generally screened from the outside world. The toy broom Harry had been given on his first birthday was upgraded to a more serious broom on his second birthday, and the other kids got brooms that were suitable for their ages too so they had great fun flying about the grounds and in the woods around the Lodge. This was one of their major departures from a 'normal' childhood, because they were generally just running around and playing in the pool like any kids their age.

* * *

Watching cowboy movies exposed something rather unexpected about the two year old Harry though, because when they were running around shooting finger guns at each other and gleefully shouting 'pew', 'pew', 'pew', what Harry was 'shooting' at started blowing up. Harry had been displaying magic since he was a few months old, so they all knew he had strong magic, but this wasn't just calling a toy or the cat to him or changing his appearance to match the person holding him…. Or even _flying_ across the room to his Godmother…. this was non-verbally and wandlessly casting blasting curses. Luckily they were weak ones, but it was still something that most witches and wizards twenty or thirty years older than him couldn't do, and he shouldn't be learning about blasting curses for another twelve or thirteen years either.

They brought in the Unspeakables' best mind magic expert to gently probe his mind and he confirmed what they'd suspected and feared, that while Voldemort's dark presence had been successfully removed along with the soul anchor, his memories had remained in Harry's mind. This meant that most of the spells and rituals that the fifty five year old Dark Lord knew and memories of what he'd done were in Harry's head, but they were too intertwined with his own memories to try and remove them all, as that would almost certainly change who their beloved Harry was.

In the end, the Unspeakable became a frequent visitor over the next couple of years as he slowly worked through Harry's memories to try and locate and lock away anything he found from Voldemort. What the family found even more frightening was the fact that Harry managed to share quite a few of the spells he used with Hermione and Luna. Aside from passing on some to Bill, Dora, Charlie and Hestia Jones (Hestia was another orphan in their group who'd just finished her Second year at Hogwarts, she spent most of the holidays at the Lodge because her guardian, Emmeline Vance, was in the Auror Investigations office with Alice Longbottom), none of the other kids managed to pick them up, but Hermione and Luna were as precocious as Harry, brilliant and amazingly powerful for their age (they were comparable to weak adult witches and wizards as toddlers).

As they didn't believe that they'd be able to get all of Voldemort's spells out of Harry's or the girls' heads, they took a different approach, with Pandora and Patty Rakepick getting him, Hermione and Luna to show them what they could do and making them understand how they could hurt their friends by using these abilities carelessly. Luckily 'don't hurt my friends' was a concept that _w__ould_ stick in a toddler's head and aside from a very rare tantrum they didn't use any of the spells or charms against any of their friends or family. Of course this meant that the fact that their daughter was magical, and so were they to some extent, had to be explained to Dan and Jean, but by that stage they'd seen enough little things from Hermione and around the Lodge to start wondering so they didn't have as much trouble accepting the idea as they would have if they'd just been slapped in the face from out of nowhere with 'your daughter is a witch' .

Due to the fact that Gringott had told them that the goblins' life records were showing that Tom Riddle (the real name of _Lord_ Voldemort) wasn't actually dead, probably because of those soul anchors he made, they knew that Harry in particular was still at risk. That was why the magicals in the 'family' agreed that Hermione, Luna and him building up their magical capacity by exercising their magic would be a good thing so they encouraged them to play with it rather than trying to stop them, they just tried to make it a fun game which had to be a family secret.

Tuney was slowly getting a better grasp of what they were discussing about Harry and the other kids' magic because Arabella had been teaching her about magic ever since they started on this adventure, and Celeste and Elana had been helping since they joined them at the Lodge. Tuney's goal was to learn enough magic to pass her OWLs in a year or two, and her NEWTs a year or two later so that she would be accepted as a witch by the time that Harry and Danny (she hadn't liked the idea at first, but letting them change their memories so that she and Dudley thought of themselves as Tunisia and Daniel Morrissey had made it much easier than trying to remember what their name was supposed to be) started being involved in the Wizarding world.

Pandora had allocated one of the Potter Baronetcies to the Ifan Family, so she and Danny were now the Minor Ancient Wizard House of Ifan, vassals of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Potter… As it was explained to Tuney, this meant that they now had higher status and the protection of a powerful Noble House in Magical Britain, even if most people didn't know about them, and Danny had been so happy to be told that he was now Sir Daniel Robert Morrissey, Heir to the Minor Ancient Wizard House of Ifan. He was learning to put his jealousy of Harry aside but he was just a little boy, and being Sir Daniel Morrissey, Heir to the Ancient Wizard House of Ifan sounded as good to him as hearing Harry being called Lord Potter, Heir to the Most Ancient Druid House of Potter so that was helping negate many of his jealousy issues.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore got another slap in the face soon after the Wizengamot session where he was fined half of his total worth for trying to coerce the Ministry into stealing the Potters' cottage in Godric Hollow in a fit of pique… Because the new Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, _Lord_ Longbottom…. Jumped up little idiot, he'd one of his students student five years ago and loyal member of the Order of the Phoenix up to the end of the war but that bloody title had obviously gone to his head!…. Had dismissed both him and Julius Parkinson, Magical Britain's other representative to the International Confederation of Wizards….. And while Parkinson was furious that he'd lost the opportunity to make money by setting up exclusive trade agreements for his associates, as far as he was concerned what he'd lost was _far_ more important, because when he stopped being Magical Britain's ICW representative he would stop being a member of the ICW and lose his position as its Supreme Mugwump. He'd spent a considerable amount of money and influence on hanging onto that position for over thirty five years, not to mention the mind magic and blood magic he'd used on key members of the ICW to ensure their support…. So to lose the Supreme Mugwump's position after all that was an outrage, not to mention the fact that he wouldn't be able to do what he had to to prevent the ones he'd manipulated discovering that they'd been interfered with if he didn't have access to them.

He knew that there would be no point trying to convince _Lord_ Greengrass or _Contessa_ Zabini to refuse to accept the role so he could hang onto his position because neither of them had ever supported his ideals, so he decided to attack the issue head on, explain to Longbottom that it was imperative for the Greater Good that he remain as Magical Britain's ICW Representative and the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, and remind him of his oath as a member of the Order of the Phoenix…..

Albus wasn't at all impressed when he was made to wait half an hour before being shown into Frank Longbottom's office, and he was even more put out to find Alice Longbottom, Sirius Black, Alastor Moody, Emmeline Vance and Amelia Bones in there when he was finally ushered in. "Alice, Sirius, Alastor, Emmeline, Amelia, I'm afraid that I need to speak to Frank privately, if you will just wait outside you can return when we have finished."

None of them moved an inch and Amelia looked at him coolly. "Is this a sensitive personal matter Mister Dumbledore, or does it relate to official matters in any way?"

He came back with, "I am afraid that I cannot discuss that with you Amelia as it is, as I said, private..."

But Frank cut him off. "Well if it isn't a sensitive personal matter, and just in case you haven't worked it out yet I don't swing that way so it better not be, you will address us by either our professional or family titles Mister Dumbledore, and I trust Lady Longbottom, Lord Black, Lord Moody, Madam Vance and Lady Bones implicitly so they will remain for any discussion I have with you! Now you have requested a meeting with me, so either tell me what you came to say or leave!"

Dumbledore tried again, hoping to at least get rid of Bones as she was the most experienced of them other than Alastor and most likely to trip him up. "Well part of this involves something that is covered by previous oaths of secrecy that some of you have given…." He didn't like the look of the wolfish smile that Longbottom gave when he said that.

"Ah yes, that is in fact part of the reason I requested Director Bones' presence at this meeting, to act as the official Ministry witness to the fact that the five of us are permanently severing any connection with your Order of the Phoenix as we refuse to remain part of an organisation whose leader betrayed us and almost caused our deaths….. Director Bones, are you still prepared to act as the official witness to our vows?"

Amelia nodded with an evil smile. "I am indeed Lord Longbottom."

"Thank you Director Bones…." He held up his house ring. "I, Earl Francis Alfred Longbottom, Head of the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Longbottom and its Associated Houses, hereby permanently cancel any and all association with Albus Dumbledore's unofficial organisation known as the Order of the Phoenix due to life threatening betrayals by Albus Dumbledore!"

There was a flash as magic accepted his decree and he nodded to Alice.

She held up her rings and said. "I, Countess Alice Mary Longbottom nee Dearborn, Wife of the Head of the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Longbottom and its Associated Houses and Head of the Minor Ancient Wizard House of Dearborn, hereby permanently cancel any and all association with Albus Dumbledore's unofficial organisation known as the Order of the Phoenix due to life threatening betrayals by Albus Dumbledore!" There was another flash and she nodded to Sirius.

He raised his house ring. "I, Sirius Orion Black, Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Black and Gwynedd and their Associated Houses, hereby permanently cancel any and all association with Albus Dumbledore's unofficial organisation known as the Order of the Phoenix due to life threatening betrayals by Albus Dumbledore!" He nodded to Alastor as his ring flashed.

"I, Baron Alastor Robert Moody, Head of the Junior Noble and Ancient Druid House of Moody and its Associated Houses, hereby permanently cancel any and all association with Albus Dumbledore's unofficial organisation known as the Order of the Phoenix due to life threatening betrayals by Albus Dumbledore!" His house ring flashed and he nodded to Emmeline.

"I, Dame Emmeline Agnes Vance, Head of the Minor Wizard House of Vance, hereby permanently cancel any and all association with Albus Dumbledore's unofficial organisation known as the Order of the Phoenix due to life threatening betrayals by Albus Dumbledore!" Her house ring flashed and she looked at Amelia, who gave Dumbledore a menacing smile.

"I, Baroness Amelia Susan Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Magic of Magical Britain, formally acknowledge that I have witnessed the magically accepted vows of Earl Francis Alfred Longbottom, Countess Alice Mary Longbottom, Earl Sirius Orion Black, Baron Alastor Robert Moody and Dame Emmeline Agnes Vance to permanently cancel any and all association with Albus Dumbledore's unofficial organisation known as the Order of the Phoenix due to life threatening betrayals by Albus Dumbledore."

Frank nodded to her. "Thank you Director Bones."

With that he looked at Dumbledore, who was a little shocked at what had just happened. "Now that we've prevented you using our oaths as members of your Order of the Phoenix to pressure any of us into anything Mister Dumbledore, as I said, tell me what you want or get out…. And no, none of the people I trust in this office will be leaving before you."

* * *

Dumbledore struggled to push his anger down, how _dare_ they treat him like this? But he had to make his pitch before the petulant child threw him out. "You do not realise what you have just done Mister…." He corrected himself as Longbottom went to respond. "_Lord_ Longbottom, but I cannot explain it to you now. What I am here about is this. I need you to reinstate me as one of Magical Britain's representatives to the International Confederation of Wizards because I cannot remain as Supreme Mugwump of the ICW unless I am an official representative to the ICW. It is imperative that I remain as the Supreme Mugwump for the Greater Good!"

Longbottom swore as Alastor barked a laugh, then pulled a bag of coins out of his drawer and handed it over to Alastor. "I should have known better, but I thought that he would have been distracted enough by our vows to leave the order for good…. Damn you Dumbledore, couldn't you have lasted even a minute?"

"Quit ye bitchin' Laddie, it was naught but our standard bet on anything relating to Dumbledore, thirty pieces of silver..."

"But couldn't you be wrong about him at least once in a while?"

Alastor smirked at Dumbledore. "I could if he was a clever as he thought he was, but he's always been predictable."

Dumbledore was getting angry again. "What are you talking about? And what's this thirty pieces of silver you keep going on about supposed to mean?"

Alastor snorted again and Frank glumly got another bag of coins out of his drawer to toss to Amelia.

"Okay, I will admit that that one was a sucker bet, but in my defence I thought that _someone_ would have looked it up and told him by now, especially since you came out and _told_ him that it would be related to what was behind his losing access to the Potter gold."

Amelia gave him a slight bow and then turned to Dumbledore. "Seeing as you seem to be incapable of asking anyone who knows _anything_ about the Muggle world, I will tell you Mister Dumbledore. Legend has it that Thirty Pieces of Silver was what Judas Iscariot was paid to betray Jesus of Nazareth, the one identified as Christ in the popular Christian religion…. So it's traditionally been associated with the wages of betrayal…. And as we've just had confirmed, those who fought at your side and supported you through the war obviously believe that you betrayed them."

"That is not true, I have not betrayed anyone!"

Alastor grabbed Sirius to hold him back as Frank started to speak in a colder voice than most of them in the office had ever heard him use. "Even if we just restrict it to those present in this room, that's a lie and you know it Dumbledore! You _must_ have known that Pettigrew was a Death Eater but you didn't warn James and Lily about him so they were murdered by Voldemort, then you waited until the killing was done before you turned up and got angry when you found out that the wrong ones had died... You then obliviated Sirius and made him hand over Harry and go after Pettigrew, warning Pettigrew that Sirius was coming so he could set a trap for him, lied to everyone about Sirius being a Death Eater and the Secret Keeper and personally signed the order to send him to Azkaban without a trial..."

"Then there's the fact that there was only _one_ written copy of the secret and passwords to get into Longbottom Hall, the one that _you_ insisted on being given because you needed access 'for our protection', so it had to have been _you_ who gave the Lestranges and Crouch a way to get into Longbottom Hall to attack us…."

"Uncle Alastor lost Auntie Beth because you insisted that he _had_ to stand watch on a house where you had supposedly been assured that most of Voldemort's inner circle would be gathering that night and you promised him that Auntie Beth would be well protected, but they were at _his_ house that night and there was no sign of anyone doing anything to stop them getting to her…. If I were a suspicious man like Uncle Alastor, I might wonder whether you had deliberately engineered his beloved wife's torture and murder! The Death Eater raids where Emmeline lost her family and her ward Hestia's parents, Amelia's niece and ward Susan lost her family, Sirius lost Marlene and her family and Alice's brother Caradoc and his family were killed were all suspiciously similar situations…"

"So as I said, if I were a suspicious man I'd be wondering whether you were trying to make sure that most of us didn't have anything left to live for so we'd make the glorious spectacle of sacrificing ourselves in the battle against evil, thereby making it possible for our fearless Leader of the Light to play on our sacrifice to guilt Magical Britain into giving him anything he wanted after the war…. But Lily ruined your plans by managing to set a trap that destroyed Voldemort when he came after Harry, didn't she?"

"I suppose you thought that there was too much risk of my family saying something that would give some of your plans away so the idea was to get rid of us and give you one final spectacular arrest to end the war… It's a pity for you that Uncle Alastor ignored his orders and rushed to Longbottom Hall as soon as he heard about the attack, otherwise we would probably have made wonderful martyrs for your cause….. If I were you I'd stay out of the shadows Mister Dumbledore, as there are an awful lot of good people who have come to the conclusion that Voldemort was the _lesser_ evil of the war and the souls of their loved ones are crying out for vengeance..."

Dumbledore was wetting himself, and he desperately turned to Bones, saying. "You're the Director of the DMLE! Are you just going to stand there and let him threaten me like that?…." But he trailed off because it was obvious that she wanted to kill him too.

"I don't know what you're talking about Mister Dumbledore, Lord Longbottom was just pointing out some coincidences that might appear suspicious to those who chose to look at them that way, he has made no threats... although it sounds as though whoever it was who people came to believe was the _greater_ evil of the war should be making peace with his gods."

* * *

Frank spoke again in the same cold voice. "Your request to be reinstated as one of Magical Britain's representatives to the International Confederation of Wizards is denied Mister Dumbledore. Whatever your political agenda involving your nebulous Greater Good is, it has obviously interfered with your duties to represent the interests of _Magical Britain_ in the ICW, because both of Magical Britain's new representatives have been presented with numerous complaints about both yourself and Sir Julius in the short time since they have taken up their duties. You will not be representing Magical Britain in the ICW again for as long as I am Director of the Department of Magical International Cooperation, or ever for that matter if I have anything to do with it…."

"Concentrate on restoring Hogwarts to what you keep claiming it to be, the Premier Magical School in Britain if not Magical Europe Mister Dumbledore… Many of us on the Wizengamot are currently debating whether we regard the right to sit on the Wizengamot to be sufficient reason to inflict attending Hogwarts on our children when they can go to Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, Ilvermorny or other schools for a proper education and have their Stewards and allies vote for their houses…. Of course this would not have been an issue if it wasn't for that change to the Wizengamot regulations you got put through earlier this year which made attending Hogwarts a pre-requisite for holding a seat on the Wizengamot…. Some of us hope to be able to carry on our family traditions though and we will be claiming our rightful seats on Hogwarts' Board of Governors so that we can monitor what's going on at the school more closely and eliminate any obstacles in the way of Hogwarts improving before they become a problem.… For example…. The Wizarding Examination Authority has advised us that there was a marked drop in the Potions OWL and NEWT scores at Hogwarts this year. If that is not rectified next year you and your pet Death Eater will have a lot of explaining to do Mister Dumbledore! And get someone who can do a proper job of teaching History of Magic and Muggle Studies! Those two courses have been a joke for decades! Make no mistake Mister Dumbledore, unless there is a marked improvement in how the students are taught at Hogwarts for most subjects, _something_ is going to change, and you don't have any other jobs to fall back on now."

"And that's another thing, _stop_ claiming that Hogwarts is the World's Premier Magical School, because you are making a laughing stock of both yourself and Magical Britain. How you wish to portray yourself is your own issue, but it becomes an issue for the Wizengamot to address when you damage Magical Britain's image. If everyone at Hogwarts spends the next five or ten years working hard to restore it to its proper state it may be able to become the Premier Magical School in Europe again, but there is no real hope of it ever becoming the _World's_ Premier Magical School. Good Day Mister Dumbledore. I strongly suggest that you refrain from demanding any further meetings with me in my current capacity as I will not be so hospitable again!"

* * *

Sirius sniffed and barked a laugh as Dumbledore scuttled out of the office. "I think you could have made him shit himself if you pushed a little harder Frank, but as it was you only managed to make him piss his pants."

Amelia swatted him across the back of the head. "A bit of decorum please Sirius Black! There are ladies present!"

His words were appropriate as he bowed to her… "I forgot myself Baroness Bones, please accept my deepest apologies, and you as well Countess Longbottom and Dame Emmeline..." But his shit eating grin made a lie of his contrition.

Alice just shook her head at him, because his incorrigible nature was a large part of Sirius' charm. "Does anyone believe that Dumbledore will do anything about the issues that Frank raised at Hogwarts?"

Frank sighed in frustration and pulled her into his lap. "He'll try to tell himself that I was just trying to frighten him, until he comes to address the Hogwarts Board at the next meeting and finds that Sirius, Pandora, Amelia, Godfrey Greengrass, Griselda Marchbanks and I have taken our seats on the board as I said. I dare say that should be enough to get him to make an effort to get Snape into line by the time the school year starts. I hope he _does_ manage to scare Snape into acting professionally because Hestia and Bill Weasley will _both_ be there in the coming year. I don't see much hope of getting him to do anything about Binns or that Pure Blood idiot who probably believes that the shite he's teaching them about the Muggle world is accurate though."

Alice looked at Amelia. "What about Auntie Gris? Couldn't she use her official position to force it through?"

Amelia shook her head. "No, unfortunately the curriculum comes under the Department of Magical Education, not the Wizarding Examination Authority, and the old fool in charge of Magical Education is firmly in Bagnold and Dumbledore's pockets… Though she _may_ be able to provide the History of Magic results which prove that a ghost is totally inadequate as a teacher if Dumbledore refuses to get rid of him and one of us raises it in the Wizengamot."

She shook her head. "While tearing strips off that old bastard about what he did to our families in the war was cathartic, I'm sure the parchment is piling up in my office and unfortunately Lord Longbottom, my Aurors have work to do, so kiss your wife goodbye because we need to get back to it."

Frank grumbled good naturedly but kissed Alice and let her go, as his inbox had been growing as well while they were there.

**A/N: Godric's Hollow _had_ to refer to Godric Gryffindor, so he presumably lived there at one point. Given that the Potters are accepted in many stories as the heirs of Gryffindor, it only seems logical to me that their cottage in Godric's Hollow would have originally belonged to Godric Gryffindor.  
**

**Remus Lupin always seemed a****n excessively**** redundant name for a werewolf to me, ****so**** with my love of conspiracy theories, it seems much more likely ****that**** some ****manipulative old bastard ****would**** have have ****twisted his real name ****around**** to make his condition too obvious to miss.**


	5. Chase School

**There is a brief reference to the Toad in this chapter to explain why she doesn't play a part in this story.**

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

As Frank had predicted, Dumbledore was caught with his pants down (figuratively only, thank the gods) when he strutted into the Governors' meeting and saw the six of them sitting there, because if anything over half of the other eight on the Board whose votes he didn't control voted with them, they would be able to defeat his proposals. Frank and the others had great fun watching him trying to work out how much he was going to have to give in to before Griselda dumped a pile of parchment on the table and started in on him.

They walked out of that meeting with the majority of what they wanted, because even the ones who Dumbledore thought that he had in the bag couldn't ignore Frank's argument that their beloved school had become the laughing stock of the Magical world when he had the figures to prove it…. or the fact that the supposedly reformed Death Eater who had the 'complete trust' of Albus Dumbledore had been responsible for a marked drop in Potions scores in his first year as Potions Professor.

The rulings of the Board were that Snape had one term to turn this around and have the majority of his students getting EEs in Wizarding Examination Authority supervised exams or both he _and_ Dumbledore would be out on their arses…. Binns would be moved on, forcibly if necessary, and replaced with a qualified _living_ teacher who taught the entire History of Magic curriculum, not just a couple of Goblin Rebellions over and over again…. And the rest of the classes would progress at whatever rate suited the majority of the students in the class, anyone who couldn't keep up with the rest could either repeat or find another school to go to, there would be no more holding the whole class up for the few who were too stupid or lazy to learn.

The only points they really lost on were getting the Muggle Studies course updated to something that wasn't a century out of date and getting rid of the useless Divination course and replacing it with a Wizarding Culture course, with introductory classes for First Years, but they decided that they could live with that if the core subjects were brought up to an acceptable level. Dumbledore was quite put out when Frank essentially repeated what he'd said to him in his office to the rest of the Board of Governors, and they _agreed_ with him.

* * *

The group at the Lodge was rapidly expanding, because it hadn't taken long for evidence to come out that the Head of the Improper Use of Magic Office for the last four or five years, Delores Umbridge, had totally crossed the line when it came to her treatment of Muggle-Born and Muggle-Raised children when they had outbursts of accidental magic. When Umbridge was sent to Azkaban for what would effectively be a life sentence (She found out how quickly the 'Traditional' Pure-Bloods turned on anyone who wasn't one of them when the truth came out that her father was barely a wizard and worked as a cleaner in the Ministry's Sanitation Department, while her mother was a Muggle and her brother was as good as one as well, because it was the very ones she'd been gleefully having the Mudblood brats' magic and intellect bound to the state of being village idiots with no magic and obliviating them and anyone who knew about them _for_ who demanded that her sentence be trebled as soon as they found out that she wasn't the Pure-Blood she claimed to be.), Amelia replaced her with another Muggle-Raised Half-Blood who was actually sympathetic to the children's plight and tried to help them, in fact she replaced _everyone_ in the Improper Use of Magic Office with Muggle-Born and Muggle-Raised witches and wizards.

It took quite a bit of work to rectify what had been done to those children and their families, and once they were healed, the children were brought to the Lodge where they could learn about their magic and grow in a safe and supportive environment. As most of those children were of school age, the Goblin Nation had gotten them registered as the Chase School, a private home education cooperative that met the non-magical government's requirements for an accredited education establishment. Through Gringotts, they enlisted Muggle-Born and Muggle-Raised witches and wizards with the knowledge needed to tutor and assist the children in getting a comprehensive, well rounded education through the infants, primary and secondary levels, and some of the Muggle-Borns' mothers and fathers helped out too.

The elves and goblins helped look after the little ones and helped the children get in touch with their magic, teaching the ones who had the capacity to learn it some elf and goblin magic as well. The goblins also covered the physical education, ensuring that the children (and adults) were fit and healthy, and it was amusing to see men over six feet tall cowering in front of goblins less than two thirds their size when they were being bawled out.

Thanks to the wonders of magical replication, they had four Bedford JJLs and eight Rover 3500s (including two estates) finished in charcoal grey with stylish _CHASE_ logos in an elegant apple green script to establish the image of a high class business enterprise, so that people wouldn't ask too many questions about the increased traffic of small buses and cars in the area. With all the Knight Bus enhancements, the Midi-buses could collect the children from all over Britain (all over Europe for that matter if necessary because like the Knight Bus, they used a form of unstructured portkey travel to jump to their destination) and drop them back again at the end of the day, and they had the Rovers, which had similar enhancements, to do the rest of their running around, meeting new families and the like. The goblin mirror portals had to be powered by the users' magic, and they were a secret was wasn't being shared outside the Goblin Nation other than the family anyway, so as they weren't going to hook the Lodge up to Magical Britain's floo network and most Muggle households wouldn't be connected to the network either they needed another form of magical transport to get the kids to and from the Lodge, and the magically enhanced buses and cars were the most workable solution in the Muggle world.

Dan and Jean Granger both cancelled their gym and aerobics memberships and started coming to the lodge to train when they saw the physical education classes there, as that meant that Hermione could spend more time with Harry and her other little friends, and they could save money, get fitter and learn to protect themselves and Hermione to boot. One thing Gringott, Ragnok and the other goblins associated with the family (which now included the Grangers) were worried about was how Dan and Jean and the others who couldn't really protect themselves with magic could protect themselves and their families if Death Eaters or others of their ilk came after them away from the Lodge. That was why they introduced training with the traditional enchanted goblin silver weapons (dagger, sword, spear, axe and buckler) of the high clans into the Grangers' physical training, and when they were capable with those, introduced them to the weapons they'd adopted in more recent times.

* * *

The Goblin People had always held to the belief that an honourable foe must be met with honour, which was why they still used their traditional warriors' weapons which had hardly changed in over a thousand years and chose to meet their foes face to face as warriors. However, after several horrendous wars in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries where wizards had used anything and everything they could to defeat the People, the People had decided that while honour must be met with honour, those without honour had given up that right so they would deal with cowardly wizards who hid and cast spells at them from outside the range of their traditional weapons in the most efficient and effective ways possible.

While the non-magical humans put considerable effort into developing more effective weapons though, it was almost a hundred years before they created anything that the People saw as offering significant improvements over their traditional weapons and bows and arrows in battle... When the first revolving firearms that Samuel Colt registered patents for in the Eighteen Thirties evolved into something more practical in the late-Eighteen Forties. Once they'd made a few improvements to the human designs, these revolving firearms gave the People an effective way of dealing with the cowardly wizards who were staying back out of range of their traditional weapons as they cast curses at them.

The goblin versions of the revolving firearms gave them six shots in .44 calibre and eight shots in .36 calibre before they had to swap in a new cylinder and they could fire bullets further than any wizard could cast a curse… and on top of that the .44s could blast through any wizard's shields at that range, so those wizards didn't stand a chance against them. This was something the wizards would find out if they ever tried to start another war with the People. The People would allow the wizards to hang onto their fantasy of being superior so long as the peace remained because the Wizarding world made them a good amount of profit, but if they ever tried to attack the people again, they would learn that that fantasy was far from accurate.

The Muggle wars around the middle of the Nineteenth Century greatly accelerated the development of firearms and the People saw the benefit of and adopted metallic cartridges, double action trigger mechanisms which allowed faster one handed firing of the revolvers and the slide-action repeater mechanism developed by a British gunsmith which allowed tube magazines to be used on long arms to increase ammunition capacity as well as faster firing through 'slam firing' the cartridges as they were pumped into the chamber with the trigger held back when they emerged in the second half of the Eighteen Fifties, along with the better revolver designs from Remington that they based their new handguns on. (The People's artisans used runes to magically extend the long arms' tube magazines inside to expand their capacity by several times, using the same runes to extend the barrels of all their firearms inside to significantly improve their power and accuracy, while other runes significantly reduced the amount of recoil and noise the firearms generated.) The next significant development came in the late Eighteen Sixties when the American arms company Smith & Wesson released their top break large calibre Model 3 revolver design. Once again what the humans had created wasn't quite what they wanted, but the People's artisans used the more effective .41 and .51 calibres that had emerged in the wars to develop this new design into something that superseded the Remington based .38 and .46 calibre cartridge revolving handguns they'd mostly been using up until then.

While many of the older warriors stood by their tried and true revolvers and slide-action rifles and shotguns as they were comfortable with them, the people kept an eye on the humans' firearm developments. The next development they regarded as a significant enough improvement over the revolvers and slide-actions they were using to merit adopting didn't come until the turn of the Twentieth Century, when they adapted the more powerful rimmed ammunition they had developed for their .41 revolvers and slide-actions into rimless ammunition that could be used in their adaptations of the 9x25 Mauser C96 semi automatic pistols (and fully automatic carbine versions). In the early Nineteen Thirties, adaptations of the Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic pistols and Suomi KP/-31 based submachine guns were chambered for the same ammunition as the Mausers, with other enhancements to make them more effective weapons. 10mm adaptations of the Uzi 9mm submachine guns replaced their Mausers in the Nineteen Fifties and similar adaptations of the superior Heckler & Koch MP5 9mm submachine guns replaced their versions of the Suomi KP/-31 in the late Sixties. They also adapted the Atchisson Assault Shotgun, a box or drum magazine fed automatic shotgun, and a number of anti-material weapons in the Sixties and Seventies for handling other creatures the wizards may enslave and send against them.

The Glock pistols came out just before the Lodge was established, so the Lodge was stocked with Glock based pistols and Uzi and MP5 based submachine guns that used the goblin 10mm version of the 9x25 Mauser cartridge with the silence rune cast into the bullets, as well as .51 and 12 gauge slide-actions and Assault Shotguns (and a few enhanced Barrett M82A2 .50 calibre rifles and rocket launchers in case anyone sent giants or dragons against them). The firearms all had the rune based enchantments to reduce recoil and make them self cleaning, silent, more accurate and powerful and invisible to anyone without magic… While the magazines (the universal box magazines used in all their 10mm automatic weapons, the 12 Gauge box magazines and higher capacity drum magazines normally used in the MP5s and Assault Shotguns, the .50 BMG Barrett magazines and the tube magazines on the slide-actions) all had rune based charms to increase their capacity and reliability.

These were what Dan and Jean were introduced to when their goblin physical trainers/combat instructors decided that they were ready for it, the goblin guns. The goblins at the Lodge were well aware of how important Over Chieftain Gringott viewed Hermione Granger to be, so they were motivated to make sure that her parents could protect themselves and her when she was away from the Lodge. Dan picked it up a little quicker than Jean as he'd learned about firearms when he enlisted in the Territorial Army at sixteen because he was young and stupid. He didn't take long to wise up and got out as soon as his four year minimum term was up so he could go to university, where he met Jean and started a new life. When the instructors were satisfied that Dan and Jean were capable of using the weapons safely, hidey holes were created to stash a few Glocks, Uzis, MP5s and shotguns in around their home and dental practice so that they'd be able to protect themselves and their daughter if anything happened.

* * *

Come the First of September, Hestia Jones, Bill Weasley and a few others from the Chase School were on their way to Hogwarts, ensuring an uneventful trip on the Hogwarts Express by the simple expediency of casting privacy and notice-me-not charms on the door of their compartment. When she reached Hogwarts, Hestia was happy to see confirmation of at least one of the things she had been promised would be the changing as there was a grizzled old historian who was obviously the new History of Magic teacher sitting up at the High Table…. Actually that was the second change because the official book lists had included the supplementary Potions books that only the Slytherins had been told about before. If would remain to be seen whether Professor Snape changed his behaviour and the inbred Pure-Bloods were made to work harder or be left behind, but there was confirmation of some change at least.

She had to laugh when Bill Weasley was sorted into Gryffindor, as he was actually quite studious and she thought that he might of ended up in Ravenclaw if it wasn't for Auntie Patty's stories about her adventures as a curse breaker. The others seemed happy with their sortings and she made a note to call the Lodge and tell them when she went to bed because as the eldest 'Chase kid' she felt that it was her responsibility to watch out for the others, but for now she just wanted to enjoy the Welcoming Feast and her first night back at Hogwarts.

Hestia's good mood was shredded the next morning when she got her schedule, because it wasn't what she'd chosen at all. "Professor Sprout! This is wrong! I put my name down for Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures, _not_ Divination and Muggle Studies!"

"What? Did I give you the wrong schedule Miss Jones?… No, that's your schedule, how did you get put in the wrong classes? I _know_ I put you down for Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures as you requested! Never mind, I'll get it changed back and give you your new schedule at lunch…."

That was when they found out what happened, because they heard an unwelcome voice say. "I am afraid that I cannot allow that Professor Sprout, as the students' choices are locked in now and cannot be changed." Pomona counted to five before she responded, because Hestia wasn't the only one who was about to explode.

"You obviously misunderstood me Professor Dumbledore, Miss Jones is _not_ making any new choices because these are _not_ the classes she selected at the end of last year."

"You are obviously mistaken Professor Sprout as she would not be enrolled in those classes if she hadn't selected them, and it is a moot point anyway because as I said, the classes are locked in now and cannot be changed."

Hestia knew she should hold her tongue, but she couldn't. "_**No!**_ I'm not going to miss out on the classes I need to get into the Auror Academy and do _this_ useless shite which shouldn't even be on the curriculum just because you can't get back at Auntie Em, Uncle Frank or any of the others who quit your bird club directly!"

"That will be one hundred points from Hufflepuff and a month's detention for disrespecting the Headmaster Miss Jones!"

She glared at him, and without saying a word, stood and walked to the High Table. "Deputy Headmistress McGonagall. I request your permission to use your floo to contact my Guardian so that I can request that she transfer me out of Hogwarts immediately."

Minerva wasn't looking at her as she responded, as her eyes were boring into Dumbledore. "I will take you to contact your Guardian as you have requested Miss Jones, but may I ask that you wait long enough to tell the Board about what happened here before you leave, please? I will be attempting to get enough of the Governors here today to resolve this matter. You have my word that we will either get your classes changed back to what they were supposed to be or I will have all the paperwork ready for your transfer out of Hogwarts by the time you leave with your Guardian Miss Jones….. Professor Sprout, can you bring all the documents relating to Miss Jones' class choices to my office as soon as you have a choice please?"

Pomona nodded, seething, as Minerva raised her voice. "May I have your attention please? Third year and older students, please carefully check your schedules and let me know immediately if your electives are not what you selected for this year. We already have one student who's classes have been changed from what she selected and what her House Mistress put down for her at the end of the last school year…."

She broke off as she thought of something and turned to Hestia to ask in a quieter voice. "Were the book lists you received correct for the classes you selected Miss Jones?"

Hestia paused and nodded as she realised that they were. "Yes Professor McGonagall."

Minerva nodded and raised her voice again. "It appears that these changes were made _after_ the book lists were sent out…." She added under her breath 'and since the Board of Governors' meeting where the old bastard got his arse handed him'…. "So please check your schedules before it's too late to _fix_ any errors to your classes."

There were soon a few more cries of outrage as other Third Years and a few Sixth Years found that their electives had been changed. Hestia was the only one who had both of her electives changed but Dumbledore had changed at least one of most of children of the Druid and Progressive factions' classes to pad the numbers in the classes the Druids had outed as being useless.

An hour later, a dozen of the Hogwarts Governors were sitting around a table demanding to know what was important enough to drag them out to Hogwarts so urgently. Unfortunately for Dumbledore, only three of his supporters had bothered to come so he got short change from the Governors when he tried to plead ignorance about what had happened and tried to argue that it was too late to change what classes the students would be attending now... In fact it was one of the other Governors who proposed that Dumbledore be banned from having any direct dealings with any of the students who's classes he'd interfered with, _especially_ Hestia, and asked whether, as the one he had targeted in particular, there was anything she'd like to make it up to her. Hestia looked around the room and saw everyone but Dumbledore and his supporters smiling at her and decided to try for something that had been stopped this year. "Well I wanted to do Arithmancy as well, but a note that came with my book lists that said that from this year _everyone_ had to choose two electives, no more, no less. If it were possible I'd like to add Arithmancy and get Auntie Em to owl the books to me, hopefully before the first class?"

The Governor who'd spoken up demanded to know who'd restricted the students to two electives and why, and Minerva just nodded to Dumbledore grimly.

Dumbledore tried to say that most students had struggled to handle three electives, and then fell back on 'it was causing division between the students due to resentment that some were being advantaged by getting more OWLs than other students' and the Governor pounced. "_Now_ the truth comes out! You're still sulking because we ordered you to stop holding most of the students back to the class idiots' pace, so you're trying to find some other way to hold the better students back. _No more Dumbledore!_ When are you going to get it through your thick head that you're on very thin ice with us?..."

He looked at Minerva. "Professor McGonagall, if it is acceptable to the Arithmancy Professor, please arrange for Miss Jones to be added to the Arithmancy elective, effective immediately, and if your Professors believe that they can cope with more students in their elective classes, please announce at lunch that there was an error in the information supplied previously and any students who wish to do three electives may sign up to an additional elective if their House Master or Mistress believes that they can handle the workload. Hogwarts will ensure that the text books get here in time for their classes and the students' parents or guardians can reimburse Hogwarts afterwards."

Minerva looked at Septima Vector and the other elective teachers and at their nods turned back to the governor. "Professor Vector has agreed to Miss Jones joining her Arithmancy class and I will make that announcement at lunch Lord Selwyn. I believe that it's safe to say that you have just made a number of our students quite happy, because Miss Jones was not the only one who was upset about not being allowed to take three electives, so on behalf of our students, thank you."

He just nodded tersely because he was neither used to or comfortable with getting praise or thanks.

* * *

Frank cleared his throat and they all looked at him. "Lord Selwyn has made a good point, as Professor Dumbledore seems to be having trouble getting it through his head that he is _not_ a law unto himself at Hogwarts and is answerable to the Board, just like anyone else employed at Hogwarts. Perhaps it would help him amend his behaviour if he were reminded of this?"

Hartford Selwyn gave him a wolfish grin and asked. "What are you suggesting Lord Longbottom?"

"Compliance with many of the rules laid out in the Hogwarts Charter has been allowed to lapse over the years, especially in the last forty or fifty years. Some of these were meant to be the foundation of how Hogwarts is operated and I believe it is overdue for them to be reinstated. For example, as with the recent changes made in the Wizengamot, the Hogwarts Charter recognised that no one person should be allowed to make any significant decisions about the school by himself, so the rules stated that the Headmaster or Headmistress was to abide by decisions made by him or herself, _in conjunction with_ the Deputy Headmaster or Headmistress and the four House Masters or Mistresses. We have seen many instances where Professor Dumbledore has arbitrarily made decisions to the detriment of Hogwarts as a whole in the face of objections from the Deputy Headmistress and the House Masters and Mistresses, so I propose that we impose a rule here and now that from this point on, _no_ decisions about Hogwarts operations or payments will be made without the agreement of the Deputy Headmistress and the four House Masters or Mistresses..."

It didn't take long to get that voted in, by nine votes to three, and he went on.

"Another thing that was prohibited in the Hogwarts Charter but has been allowed to proliferate in the last forty years or more is bullying. There are firm rules in regard to the penalties associated with attacking or harassing students or staff at Hogwarts but bullying has gotten more and more prevalent because the Headmaster prevents the offenders being punished. I know from my time here that when I tried to straighten out fellow Gryffindors, everything I recommended was rejected. I propose that the students and staff be made aware of the penalties for bullying other students or staff, up to and including expulsion and being turned over to the DMLE for criminal prosecution if the offence is severe enough, and assign responsibility for ensuring that these penalties are applied to the Deputy Headmistress and the four House Masters or Mistresses as we obviously cannot trust the Headmaster to do so."

The margin was less this time, but it was still voted in by eight votes to four. He addressed Minerva next.

"Professor McGonagall, please do not take this as a criticism of you or your abilities, but the Hogwarts Charter specified that the Deputy Headmaster or Headmistress role was to be separate from the House Masters or Mistresses and as an alumni of Gryffindor House here at Hogwarts, I believe that as Professor Dumbledore has proven, three jobs is too much for one person to cover without falling short somewhere. You are a wonderful Transfiguration teacher, and we all know how much of the load you are shouldering as the Deputy Headmistress to try and keep Hogwarts running smoothly, but I'm afraid that that doesn't leave you enough time to also give the students of Gryffindor the time and attention that I believe that they should be able to expect from their House Mistress. Therefore, with the utmost respect for you as a teacher and administrator, I request that you pass the role of House Mistress of Gryffindor on to someone else who's workload will allow them to devote enough time to the students of their house…."

There was silence as Minerva took that in, it hurt to hear this coming from one of her cubs, but as he'd said, that was _how_ he knew that she'd been failing them. After a few minutes she nodded and turned to Rolanda Hooch. "Madam Hooch, upon reflection I must admit that Lord Longbottom is correct, I have stretched myself too thin and the students of Gryffindor House have paid the price for that. As the only other Gryffindor alumnus on the staff, would you be prepared to take over from me as House Mistress of Gryffindor?"

Rolanda had tears in her eyes as she nodded, as she knew how hard this was for Minerva. "Yes Professor McGonagall, it would be my honour to assume the role of House Mistress of Gryffindor so that you have the time for all your other duties."

Minerva nodded to her, teary eyed as well. "Thank you Madam Hooch."

She turned back to Frank and he was a little teary eyed himself. "I am sorry Professor McGonagall, you know that I have the utmost respect for you but no one can take on as much as you had to without some things falling through the cracks, and I thought that it was better being discussed here with all the facts being known than waiting until some tragedy came of it, as others would have ignored the mitigating factors and you would have been almost certainly unfairly crucified for whatever happened."

Minerva nodded. "I understand Lord Longbottom and I apologise for not seeing it myself before it came to this."

Griselda spoke up then. "That was the point Minerva, as Lord Longbottom and Madam Hooch have both said, you were so overloaded by all the duties piled onto you that you never had the chance to step back and look at what was happening. Everyone in this room… or most at least… knows how hard you work all the time to try and keep everything together here at Hogwarts and has the utmost respect for you. We know it must be hard to give up something that has been so important to you for so long, but this will not cut you off from the students of Gryffindor, in fact it will probably give you more time to interact with them as Madam Hooch will now be shouldering part of your workload, and I'm sure that she will be seeking your knowledge and wisdom on matters to do with the house, so you will still be involved."

Rolanda piped up with. "Definitely!" and Minerva gave the two of them, and Frank, a teary smile.

Frank spoke again. "We will leave it to you to decide how you will announce it to the school Professor McGonagall, and adjust Madam Hooch's salary to reflect the fact that she is now a House Mistress as well as Hogwarts' Flying instructor and Quidditch Mistress…."

Snape spoke up then. "That is something that you have not considered. Who will referee games where Gryffindor is playing? There is too much opportunity for bias against the other team if she is the referee…."

He trailed off as Frank fixed him with a stare, and he was suddenly reminded that Dumbledore no longer had unquestioned power over everything at Hogwarts. "You _dare_ to question Madam Hooch's integrity Snape? Madam Hooch has been teaching at Hogwarts since before you first attended and has _always_ been fair and even handed, which from your first year teaching at Hogwarts is something that cannot be said for _you_…. Actually, thank you Professor Snape, as you have reminded me of something that I did not have the opportunity to raise at the last Board of Governors' meeting….. Professor Dumbledore, explain to us just how a recent graduate of Hogwarts who was proven to be of questionable judgement and character by the fact that he bears Voldemort's Dark Mark on his arm could ever meet the _required_ criteria to be appointed to the trusted position and responsibilities of a House Master or Mistress at Hogwarts!"

Dumbledore started in on his usual. "Professor Snape has my complete confidence..." but Frank cut him off.

"**_Stop!_** I neither asked nor care about your _personal_ opinion of Severus Snape. I asked you a specific question, how does Severus Snape meet the _required_ criteria to be appointed to the position and responsibilities of a House Master or House Mistress at Hogwarts? As I've already noted, bearing Voldemort's Dark Mark should have disqualified him immediately and the reports I heard of his behaviour over the last school year supports the fact that he should not be here, let alone a House Master. Where is the evidence that he met the criteria to be a House Master?"

"That is just a guideline, it is the Headmaster's decision on who should be appointed..."

"_**Stop!**_" He looked at the others. "Fellow Governors, this is what I was referring to. The Hogwarts charter lays out the criteria that must be met before anyone can be accepted as House Master or Mistress or various other positions at Hogwarts. Yes, like anything of this nature, with so many variables the specified criteria is a _g__uideline_, but it specifies many requirements that _must_ be met by the prospective House Master or Mistress and it was _never_ the Headmaster's decision alone about who was appointed to any position at Hogwarts, it was _always_ supposed to be a joint decision by the Headmaster or Headmistress, _in conjunction with_ the Deputy Headmaster or Headmistress and the four House Masters or Mistresses. As Professor Dumbledore has once again demonstrated that he holds the requirements of the Hogwarts Charter which is the final word on all matters in regard to Hogwarts in contempt, I request a vote on the removal of Serverus Snape from the position of House Master for Slytherin House at Hogwarts."

Dumbledore desperately tried to stop them, but Frank noted with amusement that that only served to swing one more vote against him because Snape was voted out as House Master by eight votes to four. Septima Vector, as the senior Slytherin Alumnus on staff, was offered and accepted the position of House Mistress for Slytherin and Minerva had another announcement to make at lunch.

Frank looked at Snape once the Septima became the new House Mistress for Slytherin. "We expect you to give Professor Vector every assistance to make the transition of House Master to her a simple matter without any undue problems Professor Snape. If you do this Professor McGonagall may even be prepared to frame the announcement in the same manner as the Gryffindor House Mistress change, that you have been given other duties that make you too busy to carry on as House Master. Before you consider acting out because of this in any way, I will remind you that, like Professor Dumbledore, you are on _very_ thin ice at Hogwarts! If you fail to give proper instruction in your Potions classes or show prejudice for or against any individual or groups of students, you will be out on your arse and the Board will replace you quick smart. Do you understand me Professor Snape?"

Snape was obviously furious but he was smart enough to bow to Frank. "Yes, I understand you Lord Longbottom and I will endeavour to make the transition to Professor Vector as House Mistress as easy as possible." When Frank nodded at that Snape went to sweep out of the room but Frank stopped him.

"Wait Professor Snape, something just occurred to me that would give the statement that you have other duties a kernel of truth. Whatever my personal opinion of you, I am well aware that you are an exceptional Potions Master… Therefore I would ask whether you would be prepared to take on an additional role at Hogwarts, which can be remunerated at the same rate as your previous House Master position, to make complicated and difficult potions for bodies such as Saint Mungo's and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement which Hogwarts can sell at a reasonable profit to assist with its funding issues? Director Bones, would the Department of Magical Law Enforcement support such an arrangement?"

Amelia nodded. "It most definitely would Lord Longbottom. As you said, Professor Snape is an exceptional Potions Master who has proven himself to be quite capable of producing potions that very few other Potions Masters in Magical Britain can. If this Potions Master role is created and Professor Snape accepts it, I can guarantee that the DMLE would be purchasing some, and probably all of these potions from Hogwarts, and I'm sure that Saint Mungo's and other Ministry Departments would as well."

When Frank looked at Snape, Dumbledore was furious that he was being ignored, even by the one who now bowed to Frank. "This is a role that I would gratefully embrace Lord Longbottom, as I must admit that I have felt quite stifled, being here without the opportunity to truly practice my art since I gained my Potions Mastery."

They put it to a vote and it was passed by ten votes to two that Professor Snape would have a secondary role at Hogwarts as an actual Potions Master, producing complicated and difficult potions for Hogwarts to sell to St Mungo's and various Ministry Departments.

This just added to Dumbledore's aggravation because Severus had actually left the meeting _happy_ about these changes, when they eroded his ability to serve Albus in the capacity that he'd bound him to serve him.

It was almost lunchtime, so the Governors decided to stay and see how the announcements at lunch went. The announcement about the third electives had eight Third Years running to their House Mistresses or House Master as soon as they were allowed to (their House Mistresses and House Master were less than impressed to see that four of them were for Divination and Muggle Studies to get easy OWLs, but at least those students had chosen proper subjects for their first two electives).

The announcement that the rules and harsh penalties for bullying would be posted and enforced was unpopular with many of the older students, because they had been getting away with it all the time they were at Hogwarts and regarded it as their right, but they were slapped down when they argued about it. They really started to worry when they discovered that the decisions about their punishments would be made by the Deputy Headmistress, House Mistresses and House Master, because they knew that they'd get off with a slap on the wrist if Dumbledore was handling it, but the expressions on those five were saying otherwise.

The Gryffindors were upset to lose Minerva as their House Mistress, but they could see that she wasn't too upset about it and the more sensible ones could see the point of the change.

On the other hand the older Slytherins were outraged by the change from Snape to Septima, because the ones who had any brains knew that they weren't going to get away with anything under her, but they were slapped down even harder than the ones complaining about the bullying rules had been and Snape was the one doing it in a few instances.

Dumbledore didn't say a word though the whole process, he just sat there looking furious, even more so when Frank gave him an evil smile as the Governors were leaving.

Frank and Amelia burst out laughing when they were safe in Amelia's office, because the only ones who didn't come out ahead in what was agreed were Dumbledore and his supporters on the Board who he'd be sure to blame for what happened. Amelia congratulated Frank for the inspired idea to give Snape an actual Potions Master job that would make money for Hogwarts while he did what he wanted to do and didn't have to take a salary cut.

Frank shook his head. "It literally popped into my head while I was watching him work himself into a rage that he'd be bound to take out on the students. It occurred to me that if he's as brilliant at potions as we all know he is and he actually likes being a potions master, why not throw him a bone? I was making it up as I went along but one of the usual arguments is that Hogwarts doesn't have the funds to do most of the things we propose and I know how expensive most of those difficult potions are, so if that money was going to Hogwarts, it would help get agreement from the other Governors. I must admit that I wasn't expecting to see him so happy about agreeing to the role... I think it might have been giving him a way of getting around something Dumbledore had forced him to agree to, but it should work out in the students' favour if he's happy about how this went…. So yes, Dumbledore is the only one who lost much in the meeting, though Anthony Abbott supporting what he saw was a sound business decision instead of following Dumbledore's line on Snape's new role will be getting him a serve from Dumbledore…..." He gave an evil grin. "It wouldn't hurt for one of us to commiserate with Anthony about being so badly treated by Dumbledore when he was doing the right thing and let him in on some of the things we're trying to achieve actually, with any luck that might be enough for us to win his Board and Wizengamot votes away from Dumbledore..."

Amelia laughed. "I forgot how much you learnt about politics from your Dad Frank, you play the game well."

He shook his head with a laugh. "Oh it wasn't Dad, most of my political training came from Mum. Why do you think I want her to keep representing the House of Longbottom in the Wizengamot? One thing Dad told me was to never question Mum's political advice because she's always a few steps ahead of the game, and he's right."

* * *

Some of the dozens of children and teenagers who'd been added to the group at the Lodge because they were going through the Improper Use of Magic Office's records and fixing the bindings and memory manipulations that had been done to them should have been at Hogwarts, but they never got their letters because various parties had scrubbed their names from the records. Most of them were having trouble at their 'regular' schools because of the unexplainable things that tended to happen around them, so with few exceptions their families agreed for them to transfer to the Chase School.

They were working at getting caught up with where they were supposed to be for their 'regular' education, but they were also getting training in controlling and using their magic, and as they had a number who would have been at Hogwarts or some other magical school, Gringott set things in play to get most of the Wizarding adults at the Lodge accredited as tutors in at least one or two magical subjects by the ICW so that the kids would have what they needed to be tested by the ICW for their OWL and NEWT equivalents, and the yearly exams as well if they wanted a more detailed record of their education.

On top of the 'rescued' Muggle-Born and Muggle-Raised children, many of the children of the Druid and Progressive houses had joined the Chase School after it was established as their parents came to accept the benefits of learning about both worlds, so by the time Hogwarts started they had over a hundred children there including the tots. Those going to Hogwarts would be sending the assignments for their non-magical education 'home' to be marked and returned through the school year and they'd do more intensive lesson over the breaks if they were serious about progressing.

How they had gone from a safe place to raise Harry, Danny and the other tots to an internationally recognised school in both the Wizarding and 'Normal' worlds in less than three months was the subject of much debate in their down time.

Aside from the children getting the chance to be properly educated in both worlds though, the ones at the Chase School were learning to understand, appreciate and work with the goblins and elves…. And dwarves, because for all their public pretence of animosity the goblins and dwarves lived and worked closely together.

Dwarves were warriors, diggers, miners and builders, masters at working with stone, while the goblins were warriors and master artisans in metal who had 'people' skills when they were needed…. So the dwarves excavated and created the goblin's underground cities (and more than a few of the human's legendary structures aboveground) and mined and refined the ore for what the goblin artisans created…. While the goblins crafted the metal into their masterpieces and interfaced with the humans for the fae, as the dwarves didn't much like dealing with humans.

Strictly speaking, the dwarves didn't qualify as part of the fae because they were a separate race of cave dwellers from the icy north in what became the Nordic Nations, but they had spread south through the mountains in search of ore and their background and views of humans were close enough to most of the fae's to claim kinship after they had negotiated a peace with the goblins, who they'd been fighting over the caves and ore in the mountains.

Most of the Wizarding world would have been shocked to learn that most of the children and adults at the Lodge had picked up enough Common Goblin at least to communicate and understood enough about their culture to avoid accidentally offending anyone (some goblins were _intentionally_ offended because they were just as bad mannered as some humans). For a centuries old non-magical hunting lodge in Crawley that was supposedly being renovated and turned into a business school of some sort and/or home schooling cooperative, the Lodge was quite a melting pot of magical and non-magical cultures.

**A/N: I think this is the only story I've seen where guns are introduced via the goblins… Especially with the angle of them deciding that they aren't going down to another cowardly attack by wizards after the Eighteenth Century 'Rebellions', but the logic works for me anyway. ;^)**


	6. Guily Secrets

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

Something that had caught Tuney and Pandora's keen eyes as things began to pick up at the Chase School was that many of the Muggle-Born and Muggle-Raised witches and wizards who were brought in to tutor the children and some of the parents who were helping out seemed extraordinarily comfortable and familiar with the goblins. They understood that there was sometimes a reason for secrecy, so they waited until they were behind privacy wards with Gringott before they demanded an answer from him. They weren't expecting him to burst out laughing.

"I should have known that you two would be the ones who caught onto our guilty little secret, Lily did too, but Charlus and Dorea agreed with her that James was still too much under Dumbledore's control to let him in on it. I have a question for you ladies, how well do you think your average human would react to seeing the man they were working with turn into a goblin or an elf?"

They shuddered as they thought about the terrified and most likely violent reactions of the average person at suddenly seeing the person they were talking to turn into what they would probably view as a monster right in front of them. Gringott nodded.

"Yes, and it was far worse around six hundred years ago when the People first started making a serious effort to establish their presence in the non magical world… The humans usually started screaming 'demon!' and tried to kill us…. That's why we had wizards and their non magical brethren, usually from the Druid families, running the concerns we created in the non magical world for us back then…. But when the _Pure_ Bloods started taking over Magical Britain three or four hundred years ago, casting the Squibs they decided were a blight on their families out of _their_ world… luckily family magic generally stopped them killing off members of their immediate family... and actively blocking most of the so called Muggle Born and Muggle Raised Witches and Wizards from having any real prospects in Magical Britain so they would have to return to the non magical world, they unknowingly did us filthy goblins a big favour, because they provided us with a steady supply of Magical Britain's best people to run our enterprises for us in the non magical world…."

Gringott snorted. "The inheritance tests that we had these people do revealed some rather interesting surprises, because many of those who the _Pure_ Bloods deemed unworthy of a place in Magical Britain were found to be the scions of Ancient and Most Ancient houses and families, and more than a few of the Noble _Pure_ Blood Houses too. Well over a hundred dormant houses and families of Magical Britain and Europe have been reactivated through their true heirs being discovered through those inheritance tests. The heads of some of the more powerful houses that were reactivated allowed themselves to be persuaded to return to Magical Britain and use the power of their houses to try and improve how others like themselves were treated…. But generally they just became vassals of one of the Noble Houses in the Druid or Progressive groups in the Wizengamot so that their votes could be used to help push back the Pure Bloods and then disappeared as far as Magical Britain was concerned, like the rest of those who joined us. They still deal with the Wizarding world, but for the most part it doesn't recognise them so they can go about their business in that world without being bothered, much like your situation in the non-magical world Tuney."

His eyes grew distant as he looked back to what his father had taught him as a child. "The humans' records were far more limited in centuries past so we often had trouble locating the ones who had been pushed out into the non magical world at first, and of course they didn't all welcome the idea of working for filthy goblins either, but our methods of locating them improved and their prospects in the non magical world after they'd been out of it for seven years got steadily worse as the non magical world advanced so more of them ended up with us as time went by. Most of the Wizarding world isn't as bad as Magical Britain but similar problems still exist elsewhere, so nowadays the Shadow world of witches, wizards and squibs that we've created to act as a bridge between the magical and non magical worlds is well over half the size of the Wizarding world."

"The Shadow world's population got a boost in Tom Riddle's so called Wizarding War actually because many of the so called Muggle and Muggle Born and Raised deaths recorded were actually Riddle's Death Eaters and werewolves, and so were a few hundred of the deaths recorded as Pure Blood victims. Most of the able bodied witches, wizards and Squibs in the Shadow world received similar training to what the adults at the Lodge are getting, and they have been armed with the older cartridge revolvers, slide action rifles and shotguns, automatic pistols, submachine guns and heavier weapons as the People's warriors adopted new firearms."

"Luckily Riddle was too afraid of losing the confidence of his followers to admit that so many of the Death Eaters and werewolves he sent to slaughter Muggle Born and Raised Witches and Wizards and their families were disappearing or turning up dead so he did everything he could to cover it up when the Shadow world's warriors we had guarding the young witches and wizards' families we knew about used their firearms to kill the Death Eaters and werewolves to avoid tipping off the Aurors.… Shotguns loaded with silver are quite capable of killing werewolves, vampires too if you manage to blow their heads off and incendiary shells and flammable liquids will work against inferi and Dementors, for that matter anti tank rifles and rockets are capable of putting down trolls, giants and dragons too if you hit them in the right spot... The Shadow warriors or the elves with them usually used elf magic to transfigure the Death Eaters' bodies into facsimiles of the ones they had come to attack and disappeared with the families in the magically enhanced vans and cars they had been watching from before the Aurors or non magical police could arrive or got rid of the bodies. We moved most of those families out of the country to keep them safe, to America mostly because the draconian rules of the Magical Congress mean that we usually have to bring people in to run our businesses there and few of the Muggle Born and Muggle Raised and their families spoke anything but English…."

"So yes, many of the people we brought in to tutor and help look after the children were already working for the People, that's how we found them so quickly."

Pandora nodded. "That makes sense, and I'm relieved to hear that far fewer decent people died in Riddle's war than we believed, but how is it that the People have so many magical vehicles? As far as I know Magical Britain only has the Knight Bus and a handful of official Ministry cars, but those who make up your Shadow world seem to have a lot of them... Merlin, we have more at the Lodge than Magical Britain does."

Gringott snorted. "Who do you think made the Knight Bus and the Ministry's cars, and that Anglia Arthur Weasley quietly commandeered after our people had to leave it behind because it was damaged in one of the Death Eater raids and they had to get out in a hurry as the Aurors were arriving, and the Hogwarts Express for that matter Pandora? You've seen enough to know that they use runic enchantments to do most things and who are the foremost experts in runic enchantments?..."

Pandora shook her head and laughed ruefully as the penny dropped. "The People."

He nodded with a satisfied smile. "The People. So when the Ministry couldn't manage to make their Knight Bus work after they'd made a big thing of announcing that its grand unveiling would be on a given date, they had to pay us to do it, and we charged them twice as much when they insisted that the story be that _they_ had created it. The only reason the Ministry's cars didn't cost them as much was that they don't have most of the serious enchantments the Knight Bus does..."

"My father was Over Chieftain and I was learning the ropes from him in Eighteen Thirty when Minister Gambol managed to convince the Wizengamot that with the rail network extending the length of Britain, it would be far more efficient and less obvious to use a train to transport students to and from Hogwarts instead of the magical ships they had been using to transport larger groups of students since Hogwarts was established. The _Traditional_ Pure Bloods were angry that they had been overruled on the matter so they made it Harry's ancestor, Duke Hadrian Potter's sole responsibility to get the Goblin Nation to create the Hogwarts Express for the Ministry, making the required delivery date totally unrealistic and the agreed cost barely enough to get the Express built in an attempt to embarrass him because a rush job should have cost more than they had agreed to pay, but that just made the Goblin Nation ensure that the Express was delivered on time and on budget with a minimum of fuss and complication…. On the other hand the changes to update the Hogwarts Express' appearance and all the repairs that their incompetent operators have made necessary over time have cost them far more than what the Express and the infrastructure for it did in the first place…."

"We only allowed Arthur Weasley to keep that Anglia because we were sure that he would never be able to repair any of the primary enchantment runes…. But he's done surprisingly well in eight years of tinkering, getting it to the point where the expansion, disillusionment, flight and anti collision runes will all work to some degree. We've let him get away with that because the flight capability is the only thing the Ministry's cars don't have and he kept it hidden away in his shed while he tinkered with it so no one outside of his family knew he had it.… And being married to a creature like Mary Prewett as he was, we felt that he deserved to have _something_ which could give him a bit of happiness.… The ones we had keeping an eye on him to make sure that he didn't manage to expose any of our important secrets asked me time and again to allow them to kill that foul creature over the time they were watching the Weasleys."

Gringott shook his head. "So yes ladies, the reason some of the people at the lodge seem familiar with us is that they are, and the People and the humans associated with us have far more magical vehicles than _Magical_ Britain because the People create them."

* * *

The ones they had at Hogwarts reported that things were going surprisingly well. With the power to do something about it, Minerva, Filius and the House Mistresses had managed to severely curtail the amount of bullying going on after several students were expelled and two Seventh Years ended up being tried and sent to Azkaban. While still dour and sour in equal parts, and he would _never_ be described as supportive, now that he had a separate role that allowed him to glory in being respected as the leading Potions Master he'd aspired to be, Severus Snape was making an effort to ensure that he complied with the conditions the Board of Governors had set for him to remain at Hogwarts…. And with the right motivation he was actually doing a fairly good job of teaching the students potions. History of Magic was also doing well with a live Professor actually teaching the curriculum, so the only flies in the potion seemed to be Albus Dumbledore and the idiots he'd hired to teach Defence against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies.

There wasn't much they could do about the Defence or Muggle Studies Professors yet, but it was reported that Dumbledore was away from Hogwarts more than he was there and their sources at the Ministry reported that he was often in Minister Bagnold or Director Macmillan, Head of the Magical Creatures Department's offices. Macmillan was the senior house in Dumbledore's Faction in the Wizengamot and his senior supporter on the Board of Governors so he was obviously spending all of his time politicking and while they weren't really worried about that, they _were_ irritated by it… So at the next monthly Board meeting (something else Dumbledore and his supporters grumbled about because they'd only met two or three times a year before Frank and the others took their seats), Dumbledore was ordered to take back _all_ of the work he'd fobbed off onto the Deputy Headmistress, using his Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump duties as the excuse to palm off the majority of the Headmaster's duties off onto Minerva.

He argued strenuously against this of course, saying that he simply didn't have the time to take over those duties from the Duty Headmistress (blithely ignoring and obviously hoping that everyone else would ignore the fact that they were in fact the _Headmaster_'s duties), but changed his tune quick smart when Griselda said that if he didn't have the time to take on the _Headmaster_'s duties, he obviously didn't have the time to _be_ the Headmaster, so they needed to either formally promote Professor McGonagall to the position of Headmistress or find someone else capable of taking on the role. It was amusing to watch Dumbledore trying to reverse his position without making it obvious that that was what he was doing, but Frank was tired of dealing with the old bastard's games so he snapped.

"_Enough!_ We're not here to waste our time watching Mister Dumbledore trying to dance around the truth, some of us have jobs that we actually need to do, so it is time to put this to a vote. Those who support the proposal that the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry be required to perform _all_ the duties of the Headmaster _himself_ without delegating any part of his duties to anyone else or be replaced by someone capable and willing to perform the job of Hogwarts' Headmaster properly, please raise your wands!" He counted the votes with a great deal of satisfaction and spoke again. "Those against?"

Frank had to fight to keep a triumphant smile off his face as he officially called out the results of the vote. "The vote for the proposal that the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to be required to perform _all_ of the duties of the Headmaster _himself_ without delegating any part of them to anyone else or be replaced by someone who is capable and willing to perform the job of Hogwarts' Headmaster properly has been passed with fifteen votes for the proposal, two votes against and three abstentions. Mister Dumbledore, the Hogwarts Board of Governors requires your official response at this time… Will you swear a magical vow to begin to perform _all_ of the duties of the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry yourself without delegating any part of them to anyone else, effective immediately, or do you choose to be removed from the position of Hogwarts' Headmaster, with your formal dismissal becoming official once a suitable replacement for you has been appointed by the Board of Governors?"

It was obvious that Dumbledore wanted to rant and rave, quite possibly at the four of his erstwhile supporters who it was quite apparent that he now regarded as betraying him even more than Frank, but he bit out. "I will take back all of the Headmaster's duties from Professor McGonagall."

Frank went to say something but Amelia stopped him, as it was _her_ turn to have a bit of fun.

"Do you have issues with your hearing Mister Dumbledore? Because I and I believe everyone else at the table distinctly heard Lord Longbottom specify state that a vow was required, not a vague statement, though I will admit that he was remiss in not actually specifying the vow he required."

Frank nodded. "Quite right Baroness Bones, my apologies, the required vow is 'From this moment on until I no longer hold the position of Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I, Albus Percival Dumbledore, give a binding vow to perform all of the formal duties of the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry myself without delegating any part of my duties to anyone else.' Did you get that Mister Dumbledore, or do you need me to repeat it louder?"

"I will thank you to keep your childish insults to yourself _Lord_ Longbottom, and furthermore I insist on being addressed by my proper title, just as you do, my proper title is _Professor_ Dumbledore!"

At that point he was suddenly reminded that there was a very dangerous character inside the Frank Longbottom who was restored from the state he'd languished in for seven months as Frank's voice turned as cold as it had in his office. "You forget your place Dumbledore! In case you did not hear or have forgotten, Baroness Bones asked you whether you had issues with your hearing and you did not answer her. And as for your _proper_ title. It is not _Professor_ at all, because under the Hogwarts Charter, which you have _still_ not read apparently, the title Professor is conferred upon the actual teachers of the official subjects taught at Hogwarts. You have not taught a class at Hogwarts since you became Headmaster in Nineteen Forty Five, so therefore you are _not_ entitled to use the title Professor!"

Edgar Macmillan piped up, in his usual pompous tone. "Then you should address the Headmaster as _Headmaster_ Dumbledore Longbottom."

He wished that he'd kept his mouth shut when Frank turned that cold gaze on him. "What is your official title Macmillan?"

The pompous arse puffed himself up. "Earl Edgar Ernest Macmillan, Head of the Senior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Macmillan!"

"And what is _my_ official title?"

Macmillan deflated as he realised what he'd just done and answered quietly. "Earl Francis Alfred Longbottom, Head of the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Longbottom and its Associated Houses…."

"And which of us is the Head of the superior house?"

"You are My Lord."

"That is correct, and if I ever hear you addressing me as your inferior again you will meet me in an honour duel! As for your assertion that Dumbledore should be rightly addressed as _Headmaster_ Dumbledore, no he should_ n__o__t_. At this point in time he has not made the vow required for him to retain the Headmaster's position and therefore the highest honorific he is entitled to is _Mister_."

"But..."

"I presume that you were about to claim that he has the right to be addressed by his personal title of _Sir_ Albus, due to the lifetime Baronetcy that was bestowed upon him in conjunction with his Order of Merlin, First Class?"

Macmillan just nodded, wishing that he'd kept his mouth shut as he was discovering first hand why Frank Longbottom had been such a feared Auror in the war.

"Under what name was Dumbledore awarded his Order of Merlin?"

"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, of course."

"Correct, but you see the problem is that Albus _Percival_ Dumbledore, which is what the man sitting here at the table's _true_ name is, has absolutely no claim to the Order of Merlin that was awarded to Albus Percival _Wulfric Brian_ Dumbledore _or_ the lifetime Baronetcy that came with it. Albus Percival Dumbledore is a very vain man who apparently believed that he was too important a personage to only have one middle name like most _ordinary_ people, so he added two more names to make himself appear more important, but he never bothered making that name change official, so no honours bestowed upon Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore apply to him…"

"For that matter I _could_ argue that he is not the Headmaster of Hogwarts either, because while he was initially hired by Hogwarts as the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor using his true name of Albus Percival Dumbledore in Nineteen Sixteen, he was appointed to the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts in Nineteen Forty Five as Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who he is not. So do you now accept that _Mister_ Dumbledore is in fact the proper form of address for the man sitting here Lord Macmillan?"

Macmillan nodded nervously. "Yes Lord Longbottom, and I apologise for questioning you when I was the one who was unaware of the true facts of the matter."

Frank nodded to him. "Perhaps the House of Macmillan should make an serious effort to discern the true facts of the matter for itself so that it may make an informed choice in regard to whom it is prepared to stake its good name and reputation on Lord Macmillan." Then he turned to Dumbledore.

"Albus Percival Dumbledore, are you prepared at this point to give the vow exactly as I stated it to you, or shall we dismiss you as the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry here and now? Do not try my patience any further Mister Dumbledore, as I have none left at this point!"

Dumbledore was just about wetting himself by then so he shot to his feet, held up his wand and stated.

"From this moment on until I no longer hold the position of Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I, Albus Percival Dumbledore, give a binding vow to perform all of the formal duties of the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry myself without delegating any part of my duties to anyone else."

There was a flash from his wand and they felt the magic of Hogwarts accepting the vow, then Frank looked at Sirius, who was Chairman because he was representing the senior house on the Board.

"As I believe that our business is done here Lord Black, may I request that we close this meeting of the Board?"

Sirius just nodded, declaring the meeting closed and stuffing the parchment in front of him into his portfolio and walked out without another word. He wanted to discuss what had happened here, but recognised that that discussion shouldn't be carried out here.

Three weeks later, the representatives of the senior houses of the Druid and Progressive Factions in the Wizengamot received formal requests to meet with the Head of the Senior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Macmillan and by the end of that meeting, Dumbledore had lost the House of Macmillan's votes to the Druids on the Hogwarts Board and to the Progressive Faction in the Wizengamot, the same way he had lost the House of Abbott's votes six weeks earlier.

Albus was beginning to wonder where he would be after a year, as he'd lost more than he would have believed possible in five months. On top of that, with all the work that McGonagall had thrown back onto him and having to be there to deal with issues that came up, he was lucky to get away from Hogwarts for even an hour or two once a week. He had to try and maintain his control over his allies using the floo and he could already feel that control slipping. Losing both the Houses of Abbott and Macmillan in the space of six weeks had hit his faction hard, and he was hearing whispers that others in the faction were beginning to ask whether those traitors had had the right idea.

* * *

While all the dramas were going on elsewhere, life at the Lodge was moving along smoothly. The only outward signs that the Chase School was operating from the Lodge were the Bedford JJLs and Rover 3500s that were housed in one of the Lodge's outbuildings and were seen coming and going morning and night, and during the day as well. The cover story of on-going renovations explained why large parts of the lodge were closed off and being established as a home schooling cooperative made it easy to explain the groups of students scattered about, inside the building and out. This in turn made it easier for the different groups to slip away downstairs for their magical training without being noticed, because most of that was done in the underground complex that the dwarves were building beneath the Lodge. As a general rule, aside from the wards that masked and protected the property and the magical vehicles, which they made sure to operate in non-magical mode near the Lodge, aboveground was kept non-magical and magic was kept below.

For the pre-school aged children, much of their time was spent running around and playing, though the adults took advantage of the ability of children at that age to soak up knowledge like a sponge to teach them the basics of a variety of languages including goblin, the basic cultural rules for the cultures they would be part of and deal with as they grew up, the basics of reading in a number of languages and how to get in touch with their magic, which they all had to some degree, even those the Wizarding world called Squibs, because they came from families with magic.

The Primary school aged children spent more time learning about non-magical education subjects and started learning how to use magic to the extent that they could and were started on the goblins' warrior training which formed the basis of their physical fitness training.

The Secondary school aged children spent the majority of their time on a mixture of magical and non-magical education. Even those with too little magic to be officially classed as witches or wizards still learned the theory of the wand based subjects such as Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts as with enough practice most of them could build up their magic to the point where they could manage to perform weak forms of many of the spells, which would be enough to get an Acceptable in their exams if they did well in the theory. Those who had been cast out of their families and Magical Britain for being Squibs took great delight in encouraging and working with the children who were in a similar position to help them get to the point where they could pass their exams….

Their eagerness to do this came down to the fact that, by earning credentials that confirmed that they had mastered magical subjects such as Potions, Herbology, History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy _and_ managing to pass subjects like Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts, the children would prove that they deserved their place in the magical world, so Dumbledore and others like him who arbitrarily rejected anyone who didn't meet whatever standards _they_ imposed were _wrong_. Many of the witches and wizards in the group who had gone to Hogwarts were quite looking forward to this as well, because from the talent some of the children were showing in the non-wand based subjects, there was a good chance that they would actually do better than many of the students at Hogwarts, and having people who cheerfully admitted that they were Squibs rubbing haughty witches and wizards' noses in the fact that they'd been beaten by Squibs was something they couldn't wait to see.

* * *

Baron Lupin 'returned to Magical Britain' and took up his duties as Steward for the Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses around the time that Dumbledore lost the House of Macmillan to the Druids and Progressives. Some people thought he looked familiar, but they just put it down to a family resemblance to Llyal Lupin, the previous Baron Lupin….. Albus Dumbledore may have been able to put two and two together, given the fact that he was the one who had changed Remus' name when he was five, but between being tied to his office at Hogwarts because he was being forced to do all the Headmaster's work himself, losing his position as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and being afraid of being rejected by the magic of the Wizengamot if he tried to officially claim the seat he was supposed to be entitled to due to the lifetime Baronetcy that had been awarded along with his Order of Merlin (because he was almost certain that Longbottom was correct and he wouldn't be recognised by the magic of the Wizengamot as the Order of Merlin had been awarded to Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore), he hadn't attended any Wizengamot sessions since the day he was called to answer the charge of being part of the plot to steal Gryffindor Cottage from the House of Potter.

When he wasn't in the Wizengamot or handling other business for the houses, Remus was usually at the Lodge, keeping an eye on Harry and working with the children… and Tuney. Remus had been Lily Evans' friend long before she succumbed to James Potter's charms and like James and Sirius, and half of the boys at Hogwarts for that matter, he had always been captivated by the fiery and brilliant beauty. Because of that, he was rather reserved with Tuney at first as Lily had cried on his shoulder about how her sister, and her brother-in-law in later years, treated her more than a few times but he came to accept that Tunisia Morrissey was a completely different woman to who Petunia Dursley had been most of the time and his respect for her taking the stand she did at Beltane to get Harry away from her ex-husband quickly developed into a friendship, and more.

Remus was quite willing to admit that his initial attraction to Tuney had been sparked by her physical similarity to Lily, but what made that attraction grow was her own quick wit and biting tongue. It was similar to what he'd liked about Lily's personality to be sure, but there was no possibility of confusing the two, it was definitely _Tuney_ he was attracted to, and it didn't take Tuney long to decide that the attraction was most definitely mutual.

The new grown up Sirius, well _maturing_ Sirius anyway, was also playing with the concept of a mature relationship. His grandfather Arcturus had put a number of conditions on him going back to being an Auror, rather than devoting himself to learning how to take over control of the House of Black, and one of these conditions was that he would spend most of his time when he wasn't working learning how to be the Head of half of Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Magical Britain, which meant no more spending all his free time chasing random witches and muggle women.

Arcturus had had to offer a very sizable and lucrative trade agreement between the House of Black and the Zabini business empire to get Seren Zabini to agree to educate Sirius in what he needed to know about Noble House politics and business if he was to be ready to assume control of the Houses of Black and Gwynedd by the time his Grandfather passed over, and after a few teething problems (Sirius learned a _very_ painful lesson in what happens to those who cross a witch who has both the temper of the Welsh _and_ the Machiavellian tendencies of the Great Houses of Sicily when he did as he usually did when he was alone with a beautiful woman, he took the fact that he was getting to spend most of his time off work with Seren as proof that he was irresistible to women and tried to bed her. While the healers had him immobilised to allow the damage she had done to him to heal properly, Seren explained to him in clear and simple terms that his Grandfather had formally agreed that the deal they made would stand whether she trained him or not, so he had until the healers released him to decide whether he wanted to be an Auror _and_ a gentleman and learn what he needed to know from her, or he was going to resign from the Aurors and work full time with his Grandfather to learn it. She gave him a truly malevolent smile as she added that if he chose to resign from the Aurors and work with his Grandfather, his Grandfather would be sure to find ways to express his displeasure that the House of Black had had to make such significant concessions to the Zabini business interests to get her to train him, only to have to forfeit all of it without getting anything in return because his grandson's big head was unable to control his little head. Sirius was neither a fool nor delusional and didn't lack imagination either, so the images that came to mind about what form his Grandfather's retribution would take had him swearing a solemn vow to respect her as both a lady and a teacher and do his utmost to learn everything she had to teach him as soon as the healers released him.), Sirius dove into his training and actually showed that he had quite a talent for Noble House politics and business.

The most amusing thing about this was that it was only when Sirius was doing his best to learn and being a perfect gentleman that Seren fell for him. Seren Zabini was an honourable woman and a consummate professional, so whatever she told him, she was going to do everything she could to ensure that he knew and understood everything he needed to assume the duties as the head of his houses, but when he honoured his promise to be a gentleman so she no longer needed to worry about fighting off his advances and relaxed around him, she discovered how sweet and charming the man under the persona he put on to live up to his expected playboy image could be. The only women he was attracted to that he had ever allowed to see the real Sirius prior to this had been the committed partners of friends he respected and cared for too much to try and interfere with their relationships, Lily Evans, Alice Dearborn and Pandora Cathbad, so he never realised that the man behind the mask was actually more attractive to the type of women he was really attracted to than the Sirius Black, playboy, persona that he used to pull the shallow women he was usually with. Seren's intelligence, the depth and breadth of her knowledge and the way she'd taken him down and then threatened him with retribution from his Grandfather made him genuinely respect her and that showed…. All in all _this_ Sirius was a package that Seren couldn't resist and she fell for him harder than she ever had for anyone but Alberto, her son's father who had been killed by Death Eaters towards the end of the war. So it was only after Seren had almost emasculated Sirius and threatened to make his life a living hell that they began to feel their way towards a real relationship with each other.

It wasn't just the young who found someone to share their lives with though. Alastor Moody was spending a lot of time at the Lodge, learning to handle the goblins' traditional weapons because like all of the Druid Houses and Families, the Junior Noble Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Moody had some of them as heirloom weapons. He was also learning to handle the goblin guns because he didn't give a toss about any of Dumbledore and the other idiots' shite about it being morally wrong to use guns because they were as bad as using an unforgivable…. If they got into another war he was going to use anything and everything that worked to protect the innocents from the Death Eaters, Dumbledore and the rest of the scum of the Earth. He'd seen some of what these guns could do and the ones at the Lodge had told him stories about what _they_ were doing in the war…. He loved the idea that they'd wiped out Death Eaters and werewolves and transfigured them to look like the ones they were sent to slaughter without any sign of magic being used….. So guns were definitely a tool that he would be making sure he could use when the time came.

Arabella was working hard to learn how to defend herself, Harry and the other kids but she had come to accept that she'd never be able to stand up to more powerful witches or wizards with spell fire, so she was concentrating on learning how to use the goblins' guns effectively for pretty much the same reason as Alastor, she'd take anything that worked to protect the innocent. That meant that she was spending a lot of time down in the firing ranges under the Lodge with Alastor and he was also trying to teach her about all the other things she needed to know on top of how to fire the guns. In the course of these lessons and the time they were spending together, they discovered that they had a lot more in common than being prepared to do whatever they had to to protect the children and anyone else who needed protection… They had both lost their spouses of decades and others they cared about to Voldemort and his Death Eaters in the war and besides that they shared many interests, so training together became spending time together and then Alastor helping Arabella look after and teach Tuney and the kids and deciding to move into the Lodge because he spent more time there than at his flat.

**A/N: A bit of a short filler, sorry, but _some_ people were impatient about getting a new chapter to read. ;^)**

**While the first six months has taken up six chapters, the next chapter or two will probably cover the high points of the next eight and a half years to get Harry and the others up to the Hogwarts years. They won't be starting in First Year but I haven't decided what year they will be in yet.**

**BTW: In case I've lost anyone and they need a score card, Ami and Arthur are a couple, as are Tuney and Remus, Seren and Sirius and Arabella and Alastor… Hmmm, maybe I need to rethink Tuney and Remus as a couple? Their initials don't match like the others' do. :^)**


	7. History of the World, Part Two

**See, I wasn't fibbin', I'm back in Tuneyville, but it's been a struggle.**

**A lot of this chapter may be a little dry because it covers more of the goblins' history in the non-magical world, to build the image of how they have integrated into the world.**

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

Even though it safeguarded his own position, Dumbledore was disgruntled when the Wizarding Examination Authority reported that Severus Snape had successfully turned things around in his potions classes and most of the students had made the required 'EE' grade. They also reported that those who didn't were the ones who had been holding their classes back and testing them on other subjects confirmed that they were inadequate in most subjects, so they'd probably be moved back a year.

The reason Dumbledore wasn't happy was that Severus was working in his potions lab creating potions for St Mungo's and the Ministry most of the time he didn't have classes so he was not available to do any of the little 'tasks' that Albus generally had him doing, he didn't even have meals in the Great Hall any more except for the feasts. Severus and everyone else was quite happy with this arrangement and it was already turning into a good money earner for Hogwarts, but Albus didn't like the fact that what _he_ wanted wasn't the most important consideration, or even _an_ important consideration.

* * *

Having Remus and Alastor around the Lodge quite a bit meant that the older children and the adults were getting better training, but at first that didn't make any difference to the little kids who were having a great time as toddlers… at first.

They didn't know what it was, the only idea proposed that made any sense was the fact that the three of them were incredibly powerful and all their bindings had been removed, but Harry, Hermione and Luna were growing in size, maturity and power much faster than the other kids. By the time Harry and Luna were four they looked five or six, Hermione looked six or seven, and they were already halfway through primary school.

Dan and Jean were just glad that they'd taken the advice to sell their dental practice and get teaching credentials with the goblins' help so they could help teach the kids at the Lodge after they were told about Hermione being magical, because it meant that they actually got to see their little girl growing up so fast. They also learnt some non-wand based Wizarding magic, and some Goblin and Elf magic as well, though Jean showed more affinity for the non-Wizarding magic.

Gringott, Tuney, Arabella, the Grangers and the Lovegoods agreed that the kids needed to have more of a childhood before they moved into secondary school, so they were tossing around ideas about how to get them to slow down, and Gringott came up with an idea that the others liked. The Potters had both magical and non-magical business empires and properties all over the world and Harry was going to have to claim them, so the three kids, and Danny as well, could visit the Potter properties with Tuney, Arabella, the Grangers and a suitable guard for the Patron of the Goblin Nations…. With their early maturity, Harry, Hermione and Luna had all been accepted by their family magic as the Heads of their Houses so Pandora became Regent and Remus Steward for all their Houses. Gringott used the resources of the Goblin Nations to cover up the fact that they had taken their titles, and also the three of them had been entered into male and female line betrothal contracts with each other to protect them against anyone else trying to trap any of the kids into betrothal and marriage. This meant that Bagnold, Dumbledore and the Death Eaters were trying to work out what houses had been re-activated to give the Druids so much of a boost in the Wizengamot, and by whom.

But the angle that Tuney, Arabella and the Grangers particularly liked about what Gringott was proposing was the fact that they'd be mainly travelling as Muggles so that the Heir to the Potter empire could be seen to be alive and claiming his non-magical properties and business interests. Gringott smiled. "Well, you'll _appear_ to be travelling as Muggles anyway…."

He hesitated. "Do you want the short version of this or the full story? I must warn you that the full story will probably take quite a while to explain."

* * *

The others were intrigued now, so they asked for the full story but Gringott shook his head..

"Very well, we have to go back several centuries, but you should know the story before you meet people as Harry's guardians and advisors…. For a start, I told you that the Goblin Nations began establishing themselves in the non magical world six hundred odd years ago?" Tuney and Pandora nodded.

"Well the presence we created had to be under a known name to be accepted and the Potter family has been noble in the non magical world as long as it has in the magical world, so we used that to reduce resistance to our attempts to establish our enterprises, and everything is officially owned by the Potters… Which means that they are almost as wealthy and powerful in the non magical world as they are in the magical world. By agreement, this has been kept a secret by the non magical world's governments, but the upper nobility and the truly wealthy commoners who now drive the non magical world are aware of it."

"The Potters have had estates in Macaronesia, which is made up of the Azores, Madeira, Savage Islands, Canary Islands and Cabo Verde archipelagos, for over half a millennium….. Charlus always had a fondness for their Hacienda on Santa Maria Island in the Azores because it is a truly beautiful place and he spent a good part of his childhood there with his mother while his father was embroiled in the troubles of the First World War in the non magical world….. Over time, they became quite established in the islands, and so did the People because the beauty of being that close to Africa was that we could be passed off as some of the strange peoples who came from the heart of the Dark Continent. The point is that this allowed us to live openly among the people of these sparsely occupied islands, and our hiding from the sailors who came to the islands was easily explained as fear of slavers or being taken away as a curiosity…."

"Most people of the islands were against the Portuguese and Spanish who had just claimed the islands and then exploited them and their people for everything they could get out of them, but when they were attacked by pirates or invading navies and armies, the countries they were supposed to be a part of just turned their backs on them, and if they had the temerity to complain or try and get out from under the yoke of their _rulers_, they were put down by the military force of their so called parent countries. This came to a head in the First World War, where ports and ships in the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands were all attacked by the German U Boats and they refused to do anything. The only armed defence in any of the incidents was from an American armed collier in the Azores that fired back at a U Boat and made it break off its attack, and the Americans began to send ships to establish a naval operating base in Ponta Delgada as a result of that, but they were mainly worried about the Germans taking over the islands and using them as a base to attack their shipping from. As I said, Harry's Great Grandfather and namesake, Duke Henry Potter, had considerable power in the non magical world as he was upper nobility in a number of powerful countries and also had the power of the Potter business empire behind him, so with the agreement of the people of the islands, at the end of the war we made our move, citing hundreds of years of history of the countries that had claimed them because they had more might than the people living there and exploited them for centuries, while continuously refusing to protect them when they were attacked and demanding that the islands of Macaronesia be released from being possessions of Portugal and Spain and be recognised as the sovereign country of Macaronesia….."

"Britain and France especially didn't want to agree to anything that might encourage their own possessions to start demanding their independence, but Henry called in a lot of political favours and they couldn't come up with any logical arguments, so the islands of Macaronesia were officially recognised as the sovereign country of Macaronesia and that Portugal and Spain no longer had any control or rights over them in July Nineteen Nineteen. We had no problem with agreeing to the proviso that we would not discuss the fact that Macaronesia was now a sovereign country or that the countries that had previously owned the islands that now made up Macaronesia had been forced to relinquish their claims over the archipelagos and the territorial waters around them. It wasn't missed by many of them that we immediately presented a national flag that was mainly made up of the flags that had already been created by the independence movements in most of the archipelagos when they were trying to get free of their _masters_, but the sea powers tried to argue that allowing the creation of Macaronesia would just create another country who depended on them for protection if another war came along."

"We were prepared for that though, and Henry immediately offered a Quarter of a Million Pounds for exclusive salvage rights in regard to all vessels from the German High Seas Fleet that were scuttled in the Scapa Flow on the Twenty First of June Nineteen Nineteen and two years exclusive use of everything at the Wilhelmshaven Imperial Shipyard on behalf of the Nation of Macaronesia. This offer was made on the proviso that Macaronesia would have the inalienable right to make use of any repaired and reinstated destroyers and cruisers from the High Seas Fleet to form a Navy to protect Macaronesia from attack. This fitted into the plans of the British Admiralty quite well and the US Navy liked the idea of not having to divert their forces to protect the archipelagos, so they pressured the French and Italians into signing off on the proposal, they even passed on the large floating drydocks that had been claimed from Germany in reparation for scuttling the fleet in the Scapa Flow so that any repairs to the destroyers or cruisers that hadn't been completed within two years could be finished off in Macaronesia."

"Of course they were rather shocked when the remaining ships that had been run aground and the ones scuttled in shallow waters started disappearing from the Scapa Flow within a few weeks, and they were all gone by the end of Nineteen Nineteen. They were _astounded_ by how fast the destroyers and light cruisers were being fixed up and sent on to Macaronesia, as they were only being pulled up long enough to patch any damage to their hulls, repainted and put back in the water. They didn't get to see what was happening inside though, because we had been using magic to salvage the oil fired boilers from ships sunk through the war…. along with the steam turbines, diesels, generators and electric drives, guns, turrets and magazines, torpedo tubes, munitions, boats and anything else we could make use of…. and converted the coal bunkers on our ships to fuel oil bunkers because all of the coal fired boilers had been replaced with oil fired ones. The mine laying destroyers and cruisers also had the mine laying equipment and stores replaced with extra guns and magazines."

"The British Admiralty tried to challenge us when we repaired the battlecruisers and sent them off to Macaronesia, but we just pointed out that the official agreement stated that we could use any _cruisers_ we repaired, and they were officially cruisers. They couldn't argue about that, but they were worried that we'd somehow managed to twist what they'd thought was an agreement to get a few destroyers and light cruisers to protect the islands from stray attacks into a fleet of thirty two destroyers, five light cruisers and five _battle_ cruisers which were capable of challenging battleships. The fact that we _were_ removing the turrets, superstructures and armour from the eleven battleships we had salvaged mollified them, until they realised that we weren't scrapping the hulls, we were converting them into cargo ships and tankers. Once again they could not argue that converting the warships to serve a commercial purpose in no way contravened the agreements that had been made, so they didn't bother saying anything when they heard that we'd acquired the four uncompleted Mackensen class battle cruisers and two Bayern class battleships, because while a commercial vessel fleet made up of five hundred and sixty five, seventy five and ninety feet long ships, let alone seven hundred and thirty foot ones, was almost unheard of, it certainly didn't contravene anything they'd agreed to. They were worried, but realised that they didn't have grounds to complain when they discovered that all of the heavy guns from the battleships that they'd been planning to demand be turned over to them had disappeared…. But their worry became panic when they discovered that most of the ports and islands in Macaronesia had suddenly acquired coastal batteries made up of the twin or single gun turrets that had been taken from the eleven battleships…. Because between those guns and the warships and aircraft we had, Macaronesia was well placed to defend itself against anyone who went against them, and that would include them if they changed their minds about supporting the sovereignty of Macaronesia."

* * *

"They _did_ squawk when they discovered that one of the Mackensen hulls was being completed as an aircraft carrier though, but once again they had to back down when we challenged them to show proof that we didn't have the right to build ourselves an aircraft carrier. The Americans kept out of that discussion, because they knew where most of our aircraft had come from….. The thing was, we had discovered, with the improving communications from the beginning of the Twentieth Century, that people were starting to realise that the ones who made up our Shadow world somehow seemed to be able to get themselves and cargo from one country to another faster than anyone else, and without going through the usual checkpoints. The war gave us a chance to think about a solution to that issue, and we decided to make use of the much faster warships that were emerging and the rapidly expanding field of aeronautics to cover up how we were moving our people in the Shadow world around. The People's youngest clan, the Rubik Clan, was specifically created a little over three centuries ago to investigate developments in human non-magical technology and identify how the People can benefit from them and where they can be improved, they were the ones who developed the People's firearms and they have brought a lot of wealth to the People through selling improvements they came up with to the humans."

"As I said, the Rubik Clan had been keeping a close eye on the technology and the humans' situation and on their advice we made a deal with the Americans at the end of the war, trading bags of cash for everything we wanted of the surplus aircraft that they supposedly burned up in the infamous 'Billion Dollar Bonfire' and any trucks, cars, motorcycles and other equipment they had to leave behind, including what they'd claimed from the Germans… We had been planning on acquiring ex warships the same way to update our shipping fleet because most of our ships appeared to be out of date until the German High Seas Fleet scuttled its interned ships to prevent them being taken by the Entente Powers…. And as I said, we had been taking any oil fired boilers, steam turbines, diesels, electric drives and the like from ships sunk in the war to allow us to upgrade any ships we acquired to make it more believable for them to be faster than other commercial ships, and we were acquiring the guns, magazines and ammunition stores, torpedo tubes and stores, machine guns and other weapons to improve our defensive capabilities…. We also picked up a few hundred ex naval drifters and trawlers cheap to create fishing fleets for the islands, and while they weren't exactly fighting machines, they _were_ rearmed after we got them so the Macaronesia Navy was actually quite large….. In fact the Macaronesia military in general is quite large because every able bodied man, woman, goblin and dwarf plays their part, whether it be in the infantry, artillery, Air Corps or Navy… while many of the others are in the support services and every household is armed, the islands had been preyed on for centuries and their people were prepared to step forward and help put a stop to that."

"We allowed the older and less useful planes and equipment to be burnt up in the bonfire to support the story once we had removed the engines and whatever else the artisans thought could be useful, as we mainly wanted the heavy bombers, and the later fighter bombers that would be more useful to us. One of the Glenn Martin planes based on their heavy bomber had caught the eye of the artisans of the Rubik Clan because it had been converted to carry ten passengers, they used it as the template to convert the rest of the heavy bombers into passenger transports and made other improvements like reconstructing and improving the engines and adding numerous runic enchantments, such as lightening charms, expanded fuel tanks, giving them the ability to expand the interior and go silent and invisible on demand and avoid collisions when required and unstructured portkeys like the ones used on the Knight Bus so that once they were out of sight they could 'hop' to their destination. We had set up facilities for our new air transport company Jotnar Air Services at Croydon Aerodrome in London and a number of other aerodromes around the world when we first started using the aircraft whenever our people needed to be _seen_ to be moving from one place to another."

"The engines and anything else that could be useful were removed from many of the aircraft before they were burnt, though the People did keep and improve the fighter bombers and torpedo bombers to a lesser degree than we had the transport planes and kept them ready to fly because we'd seen how much damage aircraft can do with their machine guns and bombs when they attack targets on the ground and wanted the People to have that capability if the Wizards tried to attack us again. On the outside, the planes of the new Macaronesia Air Corps didn't look too different from the ones they had come from, but they performed better and were safer."

"While we were in Europe, we bought up umpteen thousands of kilometres of the French Decauville and German Heeresfeldbahn sixty centimetre track that had been manufactured to create temporary railways in the war, along with hundreds of petrol, petrol electric, battery electric and diesel engines to haul cars on those tracks, and several dozen of the Zwillinge steam engines for hauling heavy loads on the steeper runs. We also acquired hundreds of flatcars, gondola cars, boxcars, passenger and tank cars… along with petrol, petrol electric, electric and diesel autorails and draisines and trailers for the autorails. We picked up all of the Saint-Chamond petrol electric tanks that were being scrapped and the electric autorails were converted to petrol electric or battery electric, while the Zwillinges were converted to hot bulb engines. We laid tracks between the villages and ports on all the islands and every village had at least one engine and draisine and a few flatcars, and a small but efficient generating set running off a hot bulb engine to provide their power needs. We had acquired a fair few trucks, cars and motorcycles as well, but it was easier for people to use the rail cars, even more so after we added passing loops at frequent intervals between the villages so the main problem was avoiding collisions, but they don't go too fast and they soon learned to keep an eye out for what was coming down the track. Of course no one could work out how those light temporary tracks were still holding up decades later, but we just let them think that we had enough track to keep replacing it as it failed because we weren't about to admit that we're repairing them with magic. We also added aerodromes on all the islands to allow people to move between the islands quickly. Between the generators, handy rail systems, earthmoving equipment, aircraft and aerodromes and fishing and transport ships, Macaronesia went from being forgotten, backward islands to quite advanced without losing its culture after the war. Most of the industry in Macaronesia is still geared towards self sufficiency, farming, fishing and producing what we use in the islands, but the transport companies and tourism bring money in so we're fairly prosperous."

* * *

"Making sure that people saw us using the heavy bombers and ex warships as transports worked to stop them talking about our people in the non magical world, but the bombers were slow and cumbersome, and more to the point they offended the sensibilities of the Rubik Clan's artisans because they were badly engineered. That was why they insisted that we get major stakes in Junkers and quite a number of other German companies at the end of the war, because they had been impressed with a lot of the German engineering they saw in the war and investing in them would help keep them afloat in the chaos that was the Weimar Republic, we also got stakes in some of the British, French, Nordic and American companies while they were struggling after the war, but we got the biggest stakes in the German companies."

"We managed to get just about all of the Junkers ground attack planes and fighters that were left after the war and most of them were used for the People's Air Corps after the artisans removed the J Ones' upper wings and armour and fitted improved Hispano-Suiza Eight engines and the bomb racks from the planes that were burnt and added runic enchantments to all of them. When they saw Junkers plans for the F Thirteen four passenger transports that came out just after the war though, the Rubik Clan's artisans decided to try converting some of the J Ones into improved versions of them, using the larger upper wings that had been taken off the ones they converted to monoplanes. Their versions worked quite well, and they looked close enough to the F Thirteens to be passed off as them, so they converted twenty of the J Ones to six passenger transports with improved versions of the bigger Liberty Twelve engines, but while they preferred their own transports to the old bombers, they had to concede that they were too small to replace them as our primary carriers because they were officially F Thirteens so they could officially only carry four or five passengers….."

"But then the Junkers G Twenty Fours came out in Twenty Four, and they were made to carry up to fourteen passengers officially, so the Rubik Clan insisted that we get the new Junkers as our primary carriers. We had learned that ignoring them on matters of human technology was a mistake well over a century before, so we got twenty of the first Junkers G Twenty Four airframes that were built as they became available over Twenty Four and Twenty Five and the artisans built them up as F Twenty Fours with single turbocharged Liberty engines and made the same improvements as they'd done to the other aircraft. As the F Twenty Fours entered service, the old bombers were shrunk down and kept as mementos in our offices to stop the Rubik Clan artisans burning them to show what they really thought of them…. they may have offended the artisans' sense of what was right and proper for an aeroplane but they did serve us well up until the G Twenty Fours came out…... Then Junkers came out with the slightly bigger and better G Thirty One fifteen passenger and the W Thirty Four, which was an improved six passenger development of their F Thirteen, in Twenty Six, so we got the first ten of each of them as well. The G Thirty Ones were fitted with twin turbocharged Liberty engines and the W Thirty Fours got single turbocharged Liberty engines and they were improved and given the same runic enchantments as the earlier aircraft, then we transfigured our F Twenty Fours and so called F Thirteens to match the improved G Thirty Ones and W Thirty Fours so we effectively had thirty of each….."

"We didn't go for the G Thirty Eights when Junkers showed them to us in Twenty Nine because they were too big, too heavy and too unusual to be useful to us. The whole point of this exercise was to stop people looking at us and we could officially carry the same number of people faster using less fuel and attracting a lot less attention using the more normal planes…. But when the seventeen passenger JU Fifty Twos came out in Nineteen Thirty, we got ten of them and converted them to twin turbocharged Liberty engines like the G Thirty Ones, and in Thirty Two we added ten of the JU Sixty, six passenger fast transport airframes, they had been rejected by Germany's state airline, but the main thing they needed to fix their issues was a better engine and the turbocharged Liberty engines worked quite well for that…. Well that and extending them into eight passenger planes… and we transfigured the older planes into JU Fifty Twos and Sixties so we had forty of each."

Dan cut in with a question at that point. "If you can just transfigure the planes like that, why did you need all those engines?"

"It is a matter of complexity Dan, the aircraft frames, skins, wings, undercarriage and the like are all basically static structures, so once we have the image with all the relevant properties memorised, we can transfigure something similar into a copy of it, but engines involve hundreds of individual moving parts, if not more, that interact with or act against each other and it is too complex an image to be able to keep in mind for the transfiguration process. If we have supplies of the engines we want to use though, once the artisans make improvements to some of them, transfiguration can be used to copy those improvements onto the other engines we have, so we can take what's available and improve it to meet our needs."

* * *

"The transport planes and ex warships were working well to put paid to the suspicions about how our people were moving around, but when World War Two began, we had to remove all our aircraft from the areas effected by the war until they were no longer at risk of being appropriated for the war effort. We initially moved them to Santa Maria Island, but the Americans decided that where the aerodrome on Santa Maria Island was was a much better location than Lages Field for a major airfield to support the war effort in Forty Four because among other things there was a rail line coming up from from the protected and well established docks in Villa Porta that ran straight past it, so we had to move the aircraft we had there again. The Americans weren't at all happy when the Macaronesian government insisted that Santa Maria was a private island and made them negotiate directly with Charlus, or Don Carlos as he was known there, to use his island for their airfield, or that he stood firm on the position that he would _lease_ the aerodrome land to them for their airfield, but _not_ sell it to them. They still built a major facility there, with runways long enough to handle the biggest transatlantic transport planes, major hospital and repair facilities, fuel reservoirs, their own power station and a pipeline up from Villa Porta for fuel. The first Commander for the Airfield had to be replaced when his response to being reminded that any interference with the locals, especially the girls, or attempts to forcibly enter private property or the coastal defence installations would result in the guilty parties being shot was to send an armed force to the hacienda to let this 'Don Carlos' know who was boss. Unfortunately for him, we were several steps ahead of him and he found his superiors waiting for him at the hacienda…. Charlus made him sweat for ten minutes or more before he said that a demotion of several grades and a posting to somewhere in the Aleutian Islands would hopefully be enough to teach him a lesson when the General asked _Ambassador _Potter what punishment he would be calling for in response to this armed attack against his person…. Needless to say, that fool's replacement was told the whole story, including the fact that if Charlus had demanded that he be shot, he would have been, and we didn't have any trouble with the Americans based on the island after that….."

Gringott snorted. "That is something else you should know about Macaronesia…. While the Head of the Potter Family _official__ly_ holds what amounts to a hereditary Ambassador's position, most of the people of the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands were traditionally royalists, so Macaronesia was basically created as a constitutional monarchy…... The Potters are by far the highest ranking nobility in the islands, and just as they are revered by the People for creating the Goblin Nations, Henry is revered for being the one who managed to get Macaronesia created, which means that Harry is basically regarded as royalty in Macaronesia."

"Anyway, the Americans couldn't make head nor tail of the funny little men who made up most of the local labour force building their air field, but the Seabees were so impressed with them that the local Seabee commanders were trying to entice a lot of the goblins and dwarves working on the construction to take up United States Citizenship and join the Seabees. At the end of the war, the Americans made an arrangement with the British and the Macaronesian government to take over the Lages Field facilities the British had been using through the war, and ended up using most of what they had built on Santa Maria to help settle up what they owed Charlus for leasing the aerodrome land, as he had made the terms quite harsh in an attempt to dissuade them from using Santa Maria. We decided to officially make the air field a civil airport when we took it over, to better cover up our activities, so Santa Maria Airport became the new headquarters of Jotnar Air Services."

* * *

"That was also when we got confirmation of what we'd observed at the end of World War One, that the cheapest and easiest way by far to expand our air, land and sea fleets was to pick up surplus aircraft, vehicles and vessels that the military were getting rid of in the big wars, and that the Americans in particular tend to get rid of an incredible amount of planes, vehicles, vessels and equipment once the wars were over. We found out that the reason for this was the fact that they were rarely held accountable for how much money was lost in the wars and that included dumping whatever had been bought for the war, so when people came along with bags of cash and offered to buy large quantities of the used equipment that they were supposed to take home and find a use for, they generally jumped at the chance to sell them whatever they wanted. We also discovered that they were prepared to do whatever it took to get rid of all the aircraft, vessels and equipment they were left with….."

He shook his head…

"We had planned to try and get a few hundred surplus military transport aircraft to build up our air fleet, a dozen or two Victory ships, maybe a hundred Tank Landing Ships…. because they had thousands of them….. and a few dozen LSMs to update and expand our shipping fleets, with a hundred or so LCMs and LCVPs to move cargo between ship and shore for when we were shipping cargo to locations where there weren't proper dock facilities…. And a thousand or two trucks to ramp our land transportation businesses to match. It would be a fairly substantial purchase but we were expecting it to be Knuts on the Galleon if that compared to buying the aircraft, vessels and vehicles any other way…. What we hadn't really understood at that point though was that we had become the American Army and Navy's favourite people by then, because we'd spent more on surplus aircraft, ships and equipment with them since the First World War than anyone else ever had…. Apparently anyone else with money generally wanted more than the military surplus equipment offered."

"The negotiations with the American Army and Navy after World War Two didn't go the way we were expecting, because before we could even ask about what we'd planned, they proposed a deal where we got _t__housands_ of transport, observation and utility aircraft, fighter bombers, dive bombers, bombers and attack planes that were written off as obsolete or damaged…. As well as four Casa Grande landing ship docks the Royal Navy had had under a lend lease arrangement and were returning at the end of the war and a few other damaged ones, hundreds of tank landing ships, _thousands_ of tank landing craft, LCM landing craft and LCVP Higgins boats and even more trucks, jeeps, motorcycles and whatever other vehicles and equipment the Army and Navy were using for around Fifty Million Dollars all up, which amounted to next to nothing for what we were getting, so long as we took the lot off their hands and shipped it out of there ourselves.….."

"We didn't have a use for most of that, especially as we'd driven the Germans back long enough to disappear most of the ships scuttled by the French at Toulon, but when we tried to tell them that we couldn't take the deal because we didn't have the ships we needed to move all that or anywhere to keep it, the Navy officially turned over Yonabaru Airfield on Okinawa and the docks the Seabees had built there to us for as long as it took for us to load everything onto our ships and ship it home, and set up negotiations for us with the British to get exclusive use of the German naval shipyard at Wilhelmshaven for the same purpose….. remembering how Henry had secured exclusive use of the shipyard for two years after the First World War but not realising that we were the same people…. though they didn't know that the deal we worked out with the British Navy and Army was that we actually bought the shipyard and a lot of the land nearby outright, along with quite a lot of the British surplus vessels and equipment because they wanted to recoup some of what they spent on the war too, and they had the Royal Engineers build a big enough runway to handle the biggest long distance transports on our land…. and the Navy also made the official undertaking to sign over whatever ships we required from the ships that were being mothballed once they brought the soldiers home and sold us the Tongue Point Naval Air Station near Portland in Oregon outright to give us a place to keep the ships and everything they wanted us to take off their hands, they even had the Seabees clear and level enough land to put in the warehouses to hold it all and build a runway like we had in Wilhelmshaven behind the station."

"The thing was, now that the war was over, the Army and Navy were worried about how they were going to get rid of all the surplus aircraft, vessels and equipment that had mostly been written off as obsolete, damaged or useless. They were also well aware of the fact that it would quite possibly cost them more to ship it all home than they'd get by selling it off as surplus and damaged equipment once they did so so they'd decided that getting us to take most of it for a nominal amount and making it _our_ responsibility to get rid of it was the smart move…. Of course they had no idea that it doesn't matter how long things are kept in stasis so if we didn't have a use for them a hundred years they'd still be the same as when they went in, or that the People have the process to put just about any object into stasis and reduce it to one percent of its original size and weight down to a wave of the hand, and returning it is just as quick, so we can have planes, vessels, vehicles and equipment out on display and people will believe that they're very detailed models."

He indicated where he had a number of 'model' aeroplanes, helicopters, ships, vehicles, earthmoving equipment etc displayed on shelves with a goblin smile and they laughed, hiding their war machines in plain site was definitely an art that the People had mastered, and then he went on.

"Since the First World War we have gained considerable political mileage with the American and British military especially as we to all intents and purposes have taken a large proportion of the aircraft, vessels and land and amphibious vehicles they'd been tasked with getting rid of on the basis of 'no questions asked' through all the wars they've fought in, and pointed out that they could legitimately argue to the big brass back home that they probably got as much as they would have selling that much equipment off in bulk once they got it there, _without_ all the costs of shipping it home. For that matter, they have _also_ been grateful that we took many of the aircraft, vessels and vehicles that they had seized from the ones they defeated because they didn't know what to do with them. In real terms, being in the military's good books usually meant that we are in their governments' good books as well, so buying up big whenever they want to get rid of their surplus planes, vessels, vehicles and equipment has effectively put some of the world's most powerful governments in our debt.… The fact that it has also built up our land, sea and air transport fleets to the point where we are among the world's biggest transport concerns hasn't hurt either because that gives us the economic power to match the political power we hold."

"Anyway…. We had to find some way to ostensibly transport all of those aircraft we bought, but the Rubik Clan had uncovered some rather interesting information about the four Sangamon class Escort Carriers which had started out as Cimmaron class replenishment oilers… Apparently their proper designation should have been _Merchant _Aircraft Carriers rather than Escort Carriers because they were still functional tankers, they'd just had most of their under way replenishment equipment removed and their hold capacity reduced a little when the hangar and flight decks were added. The US Navy were mothballing the Sangamons along with most of their other escort carriers after the war, but being able to be used as both tankers and carriers, those so called Escort Carriers could potentially be very useful to us, so we grabbed them….Along with the two damaged Essex class aircraft carriers Franklin and Bunker Hill and the half completed Reprisal…. We also acquired the Navy's seven biggest floating drydocks, USS ASBD One through Seven, which were made up of sixty four sections which we had to pull apart and pretend to tow back separately from Papua New Guinea, Guam and the Philippines separately to explain how we managed to fix up our ships as we didn't use any established shipyards other than the one in Wilhelmshaven and most of the ships we acquired were on the other side of the world. Of course to make the act convincing we also had to acquire a fleet of ocean and yard tugs and rescue and salvage ships, along with all the floating cranes and workshops that went with them.… Mind you it wasn't hard to convince the Navy to sell us all that dirt cheap because they didn't see any more need to have floating dry docks and mobile shipyard equipment any more with the war over, and they were looking at it costing them millions to get it all back to America so they couldn't sign off on the deal fast enough. They bought ten sections back from us at the start of the Korean War and another four in Nineteen Sixty to use to maintain their North Atlantic submarine fleet, but overall it worked out well for both sides…."

"The Rubik Clan grabbed two dozen of the Casablanca Class Escort Carriers that had been mothballed, because they had plans for them as well, we supposedly used them and the Sangamons to ship many of the military surplus aircraft and smaller craft we'd bought home… And they reminded us to acquire as many turbine electric and diesel electric systems as we could find to convert into our magical generators and electric drive systems for the ships we were acquiring, the Americans still don't know that we removed all the turbines, diesels and electric drives from the ships they used for the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests when they were sunk or scuttled after the test, because we could magically remove nearly all of the radioactive contamination, we've also recovered the drives, guns and the rest from most of the ships sunk in the war, just as we did in the First World War…. and we've made sure we got the scrapping contracts for anything with turbine electric, diesel electric or diesel drives. They haven't classified the Bikini Atoll site as being clean enough for divers to check the wrecks yet because when they tried in Nineteen Forty Six the divers almost got buried in radioactive mud, but we could generate shields to protect us while we removed the drive systems."

"We found out what the Rubik Clan's plans for the Casablancas were soon enough, because as soon as they got them into the floating drydocks, the artisans examined the Casa Grande dock landing ship hulls to work out exactly what they needed to transfigure the escort carriers' hulls and turn them into large cargo dock ships that are very easy to load and unload, while retaining their hangar and flight decks and they transfigured the hulls of the Casablancas, the Essexes and the Açor…. And as we acquired the turbine electric steam plants, they were upgraded with magically enhanced generators and electric drive systems and runic enchantments to make them perform better and be much less work to run. This had the effect of turning them all into Merchant Carriers, so they could generally be used as freighters, but if there was a need they could easily be turned back into aircraft carriers."

"The Navy was surprised and more than a little miffed when they discovered that we'd used their official offer to take whatever mothballed ships we could use to grab about a hundred of their T Two SEA One oilers, magically enhance their turbine electric steam plants, clean out most of their oil holds and convert them to cargo holds, add cranes and send them off with the escort carriers to start collecting the aircraft, small vessels and other equipment we acquired after the war, because they'd been hinting for us to take some of the hundreds of obsolete and questionable Liberty Ships off their hands, but they calmed down when we cleared everything out and released Yonabaru Airfield and cleared out everything we got in Europe a year before they expected us to. Luckily they couldn't see any use for Tongue Point other than as a location to mothball the Liberty ships so they didn't push too hard to buy it back off us and the British were happy to uphold the deal for the shipyards because we were employing a lot of the local population who lost their jobs when the shipyards were closed down. We sold the shipyard, airfield and properties off to German companies that belong to us in the Fifties and _they_ let the German government buy part of the shipyard back to form their naval base at the end of the fifties, so we have retained control and use of the port and airport but are still on good terms with the German government."

"Then after the Korean War we got some of the newer tank landing ships and hundreds of the newer LCM Six and fibreglass LCVP landing craft that they'd started making for Korea. All of the ships were repaired if necessary, improved, converted to our magically enhanced electric drives and had runic enchantment enhancements added. Many of the LCTs and LCMs we acquired after the Second World War were transfigured to create improved bigger steel LCMs and LCVPs and got the magically enhanced electric drives and runic enchantments.… Of course the Americans and British had no idea that as soon as we got them out of sight we shrank the smaller ships and planes them down to one percent of their original size and made them feather light so they could have all easily fitted into one ship and put them in stasis until we were ready to deal with them but we couldn't get away with doing that with the bigger ships because they were too visible, and we had to make a show of dismantling most of the planes to store them on the carriers' flight and hangar decks or in the cargo ships' holds…. _And_ we had to restrict the ship loads to what they expected to see fitting into a load, so we had quite a few ships steaming far enough out to sea for us to get away with changing their appearance and then coming back for a new load…. Yonabaru Airfield and the naval shipyard at Wilhelmshaven were two of the busiest ports in the world for a year after the war…"

"After the Korean War we also snapped up the hundred odd 'scrapped' KC Ninety Seven Stratofreighter aerial tankers that were easily converted to transports, along with a couple of thousand transport and observation planes that were written off as damaged or obsolete, several hundred odd Douglas A One Skyraider ground attack planes and several hundred helicopters when the Americans offered them to us… And after the Vietnam War we took the several hundred transport and observation planes, well over a thousand helicopters and over two thousand fighters and ground attack planes they offered us for 'scrapping' without hesitation. We also… disappeared…. many of the aircraft, vessels, vehicles and equipment that was left behind by the Americans and South Vietnamese after they lost the war and added that to our fleets."

"Since World War Two, the piston engined planes and helicopters have all been upgraded to turboprop or turboshaft engines as we began using them…. the Junkers we had before the war were put into stasis, shrunk and kept as momentos because we had thousands of planes to replace them with….. until after the Korean War our fleets were mainly made up of Curtis C Forty Sixes and Douglas C Forty Sevens and C Thirty Threes…. and the turboprop, turboshaft and jet engines have also been upgraded…. our artisans fixed all the problems with them and the planes we acquired received the same runic enchantments as the earlier planes did…. The Skyraiders have all been upgraded to the much faster turboprop Skysharks with contra rotating propellers that the human engineers couldn't get to work and the wider AD Five fuselages, and the Chickasaws we're using have been changed into the equivalents of improved turboshaft Chocktaws.…. And the ships and landing craft have all been converted to magical electric drives with runic enchantments to improve their performance and make them less work to run."

"We moved our main base of operations in Britain from Croyden Airport to London Airport at Heathcote after the Korean War because Croyden was closing in four or five years and the Stratofreighters wouldn't fit into the hangars we had at Croyden. At that time we also bought into Gatwick Airport at Crawley and built more hangars there to ensure that we had options if the situation at London Airport changed."

"Since the mid Sixties, we have been picking up jet and turboprop airliners and business planes to upgrade our fleet. Most of them had their engines upgraded, they all had whatever problems they had fixed and received similar runic enchantments to our other planes… The reason for getting the later turboprops and jets was to replace the older propeller aircraft we were using in the busier areas because advances in aircraft tracking technology and communications meant that we couldn't get away with hopping the slower prop planes around the busier parts of world any more without someone noticing, and older prop transports were drawing too much attention. We're still using some of the older prop transports as…. well, props… for our operations in the more out of the way areas to explain how we're moving people and cargo around so much, but the newer turboprops and jets are what we keep at the major airports and use for the more visible runs now…."

"The majority of Jotnar Air Services' obviously military transports are based at Santa Maria Airport, and a good number of the Skysharks and jet attack planes and fighters are there as well…. While obsolete according to the Americans, those _old_ attack planes meet our needs quite well, because what the People mainly need them for is to destroy warded wizarding facilities and any creatures the Wizards send against us…. and with their ability to 'hop' to their destination, they can deliver devastating blows directly to the Wizards in nearly two thousand different locations at once if necessary with bombs, rockets and heavy guns if they ever try to start another war with the People.… Several thousand if you include the Shadow world's attack planes…. The Skysharks and Havocs that make up three quarters of the People's and the Shadow world's attack planes can also carry teams of warriors to go in and finish the job after the planes have done their part…."

He gave a goblin grin at that. "Being able to make the planes weigh almost nothing means that they need less than a hundred feet to land and take off so our warriors can be put down almost anywhere."

* * *

"After the Second World War, the fact that the Potter business empire was based in and tied to Macaronesia was known to the American, British and more than a few of the other governments, but as I said they have been keeping that information close to the chest. That was why the US Navy offered us the Mitscher class destroyers in Seventy Three…. The USS Mitscher and John McCain had been converted to guided missile destroyers in the mid Sixties to test the new missile systems, but the Navy decided to scrap them after the Mitscher came in for yet another major overhaul in late Seventy Two, because the steam plants they were fitted with in the early Sixties were causing almost continuous problems, while the Willis Lee and Wilkinson had already been struck off as a cost cutting measure and their weapons systems were partly removed so they were basically giving them to us to scrap. We were well known for completely rebuilding most of our ships when we got them, so they were basically offering the Mitscher and John McCain to us for their weapons systems and included the weapons systems that had been stripped out of another destroyer that was used for the missile testing to sweeten the deal, as you humans say, needless to say we jumped at the chance. Of course they all got our magically enhanced generators and electric drive systems and runic enhancements as soon as we got to Santa Maria."

"The US Navy was all for selling us the Mitscher destroyers, partly because the Americans had issues the Estado Novo regime and liked the idea of having us nearby as an armed deterrent to help keep them in line, and even more because the Navy wanted to recoup some of what the missile testing program had cost them by selling us the destroyers…. And being accepted as a sovereign nation means we can legitimately keep the destroyers, as well as our other warships and warplanes equipped with up to date weapons, missiles and bombs. We normally keep half of the warships and the Potter yachts shrunk and in stasis to reduce the upkeep so people are usually asking where they are, which worries Portugal, but then everyone has been looking for our ten aircraft carrier sized floating dry docks most of the time for the last forty years too because they can't see how _they_ could disappear… but the Rubik Clan keep ten very nice four and a half by two and a half foot models of the dry docks in their artisans' hall here, as it's quite easy to carry them through the portals to wherever they are needed…."

"And as for the Potter yachts… Harry's grandparents, Charlus and Dorea, understood the necessity of maintaining the expected image for one's position, and people as rich as them were _expected_ to have mega yachts and all the rest of the trappings of being rich and famous. We were originally planning on getting all of the Mitscher destroyers operational with updated missile systems, but the Willis Lee had already had most of its weapons systems stripped out and Dorea pointed out that one more destroyer with cobbled together weapons systems probably wouldn't add that much to the capabilities of the three properly equipped missile destroyers…. But there was nothing wrong with its hull so with our magically enhanced electric drive systems and everything else, we could turn that destroyer into the biggest mega yacht in the world, and that would make most of the ones who tried to lord it over everyone else green with envy, so the Willis Lee was made into the Potters' primary mega yacht, the Santa Maria, a sleek and elegant four hundred and ninety foot lady who can pick up her skirts and do over fifty knots, she set the standard for the ones who really wanted to impress with their mega yachts."

"By the end of the Vietnam War, we'd picked up five of their Terrebonne Parish class, six of their De Soto County class tank landing ships, half a dozen of their LCU Sixteen Ten landing craft, including the only aluminium one they made, hundreds of their LCM Eight Model Four aluminium landing craft, and hundreds more of the later LCM Six and fibreglass LCVP landing craft…. making the magically enhanced electric drive system and runic enchantment improvements to any of the ships and landing craft we are using."

"We also acquired the research submarine USS Albacore in the early Seventies after it was decommissioned at the Rubik Clan's insistence, they rebuilt it with improvements and one of the acrylic spheres made for the DSV Nemo in its nose, it's the MS Blue Fin now but they normally keep it shrunk in stasis in their artisans' hall…. Dealing with the Rubik Clan tends to be like dealing with Lily Potter was, most of the time we cannot work out what they are talking about but what they come up with usually works so well for us that we tend to do what they tell us without question… Lily worked with them quite a bit in the time she was with us, which I for one accept as validation of their worth…. And since the late Seventies, we've acquired the four Osprey class PTF Fast Patrol Boats, which have been cleaned up and converted to fast yachts with magically enhanced electric drive systems but still have their gun mounts and guns, the Essex class aircraft carrier Oriskany after the Navy's proposal to reactivate her in Eighty Two was rejected by Congress because it would have cost over half a billion dollars, and four of the Thomaston class dock landing ships that succeeded the Casa Grandes, the Rubik Clan like the Thomastons so much they have their eyes on the rest of the Thomaston now…. They did a similar conversion to the Oriskany as they did to the other carriers to turn it into a much bigger and better dock cargo ship with a seventy eighty foot wide well deck like the new Tarawa amphibious assault ships and turbine electric steam plants that had been enhanced by the artisans."

"We picked up some BAC One-Elevens, a Blackburn Beverly, HS One Twenty Five and Bell JetRanger and acquired Court Line Aviation's maintenance hangar at Luton Airport when they were liquidated in Nineteen Seventy Four, and we bought out Laker Airways who were based at Gatwick when they went bankrupt in February Eighty Two. Nearly everything Laker Airways had was leased so they didn't have much in the way of assets, a few jet airliners and the equipment in their maintenance hangars and offices at Gatwick and Berlin Tegel was pretty much it, but they had operating licenses in a number of countries and a few useful routes which made it worth our while to buy them out and change the name to Jotnar Airways. We're part owners at Gatwick because we held onto our stake in the Airport when it was sold in Sixty Six, so they couldn't stop us when we decided to purchase the building with the Laker maintenance hangar and offices outright instead of continuing the lease to expand our facilities there, because it was right next to our existing facility and would take bigger planes….. but they didn't try to argue because a big cash injection like that will make it easier to get through the recession. We've kept the air and maintenance crews we needed for the airliners on and took over Freddie Laker's stake in Gatwick Handling…."

"Anyway, the point of all that was that you'll be travelling Muggle _style_….. in one of the Gulfstream Twos I think… but you'll actually be using magically enhanced transport like you do with the buses and cars here."

Aside from being side tracked by finding out that the most of the People were officially citizens of a nation that had been officially recognised in the non-magical world for nearly seventy years (and even more shocking, that Prime Minister Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth and some other heads of state in the non-magical world were not only _aware_ of the fact that Macaronesia was in fact largely an extension of the Goblin Nations, they wholeheartedly supported putting one over the Wizarding world like this), the family, including the Grangers and the Lovegoods, were quite on board with the idea of the kids touring the Potter properties around the world, especially if they got to visit them at the properties, so they began making arrangements. While small children generally travelled under their parents or guardians' British passports, Harry, Hermione, Luna and the adults who would be travelling with them were all issued with Macaronesian passports as well.


End file.
